Different Circumstances
by anigasm
Summary: Jiraiya was entrusted with his prodigy student's daughter after her parents passed. Traveling and training since she was young, her return to The Leaf is a surprise to the entire village. Placed on a team with Sakura, a boy-obsessed girl, and Sasuke, a lonely boy with a past just as dark as hers, she begins to question her life-long beliefs that have haunted her since birth.
1. Chapter 1

**Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~**

 **I'm going to try my hand at Naruto fanfics, so this should be fun!**

 **Huge thanks to my Beta:** **Itooshii Koneko! She literally saved me while I was working on this.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

 **Please forgive any spelling/grammar errors! I seriously read over this a million times, rewrote a bunch of things, had my Beta read it twice, and read over it a million more times before I deemed it ready for publishing. If I missed anything, which I honestly hope I didn't, then it can't be helped I guess.**

* * *

At the end of a long day, Iruka Umino, who was easily recognized by his dark skin, the long horizontal scar across his face, and deep brown hair that was always seen in a spiky ponytail, was standing in the Hokage's office before the owner himself.

"What I'm asking of you doesn't follow the regulations, but it's a request from Jiraiya," the Third Hokage stated, standing up and facing the window that overlooked the Hidden Leaf. The sun had just started to set, casting an amber shadow on the village.

"Jiraiya of the Legendary Three Sannin?" he whispered, eyes widening slightly at the name.

"I know you have your reservations against the child, but Jiraiya was tasked with raising them and overseeing their training since birth. The youngster is extremely capable, they just need to 'crash' your genin test so to speak," he took a deep drag of his pipe, turning around to face Iruka while blowing smoke out of his nose. "Jiraiya feels like it's time for the Fourth Hokage's child to be reintroduced into society. He's the only person they have a real relationship with, that's not healthy for a twelve year old."

"Surely they met other people during their travels?" he asked with a somewhat hopeful expression.

"You know the answer to that. Jiraiya didn't stay in one place long enough for them to get acquainted with anybody. Apparently they also don't trust easily, not since…" he trailed off, expecting Iruka to recall the event on his own. He took off his signature Hokage hat, setting it down on a desk cluttered with paperwork and sighed. It's not a day he liked to remember.

"I understand, Hokage-sama," the ninja teacher nodded, not sure if he could ever forget that day.

"I've ordered Jiraiya not to leave the village, so he'll still be here to handle the child for the most part. I still want them assigned to a team, it's time to reintroduce them to the Hidden Leaf," he walked around the desk to face the chūnin directly.

Begrudgingly, Iruka nodded.

"I've already figured out that team. Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Jiraiya's student will be assigned to Kakashi."

"Sakura and Sasuke? Assigned to Kakashi?"

"You and I both know those two students will pass, and there will be a cold day in hell before Jiraiya's pupil doesn't pass. Sasuke should be with Kakashi because they both use the Sharingan, even if Sasuke's hasn't awakened yet. Kakashi was a student of the Fouth Hokage, so he's most suitable to train his child. Lastly Sakura, although lacking in physical strength, is the smartest of the class. I also think her gentle nature will balance out that of future teammate's harsh ones," he explained. "They'll show up at the Academy tomorrow, so be prepared."

"Prepared?"

"Well, considering what I've heard from Jiraiya, this child, although untrusting and not used to society, is a bit of a … hell-raiser."

* * *

"Good morning!" Iruka shouted when he walked into class the next morning.

"Morning!" the majority of his students shouted back, obviously excited about the day.

"Before we get around to the genin test, I have an announcement. It's a request from the Hokage and Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin," he was marking attendance on a clipboard while saying the words he spent half the night trying to wrap his mind around.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin? No way!"

"Isn't he a legendary war hero?"

"What's the request, Iruka-sensei?!"

"I bet he's looking for a student to train, probably me."

"Or maybe he wants to be assigned a genin team?"

"Iruka-sensei, what's the request?!"

"Settle down, settle down," he finished attendance and looked up to his class, everyone was curious about the matter. Even a certain usually-brooding-I'm-too-good-for-this someone.

"Jiraiya has been a guardian to this child since their birth, he was tasked with raising them and overseeing their training. Even though he's a Sage and a legendary Sannin, he cannot give them genin status. So he asked if they could participate in our test today. I want everyone to be welcoming and reserve judgment, ok?" that was something he was having extreme difficulty with himself, but he thought that maybe since the class didn't know about _it_ that it would be easier for them.

"Ok, Sensei!" mostly everyone shouted back.

 _'I wonder if it's a boy or a girl, and how old? If it's a girl, then they're sure going to be after Sasuke-kun too! I already have my hands full with Ino-pig and the others, but I won't lose! Cha!'_ Sakura Haruno, a girl with long light pink hair, porcelain skin, and jade greens eyes, thought. Her standard ninja wear was a red dress with white piping that split at the legs and black shorts underneath. She wore a red ribbon in her hair and was never seen without it. Sakura, like the rest of the girls in the class, was obsessed with one Sasuke Uchiha.

 _'To be trained by one of the legendary Sannin since birth … interesting. They're sure to be strong,'_ were the thoughts of the Uchiha student. He wore a navy blue shirt with a high collar that had his clan's symbol on the back; a red and white fan. His white shorts covered his legs along with bandages, and he wore white sleeves with blue straps on his forearms. The pale skin and deep black hair and eyes added to his mysteriously charming looks, but his personality was the exact opposite.

 _'A new student the day of the genin test? How troublesome,'_ Shikamaru Nara, a lazy-genius, couldn't help but yawn and put his head down. His black hair was in a spiky ponytail that strongly resembled a pineapple, a customary feature of his clan. He didn't care about things too much, only putting in a bare minimum effort.

 _'My insects are … reacting. They must sense this new student in the building. This chakra feeling … they're strong,'_ Shino Aburame, a boy not easily recognized due to the fact that he always wears sunglasses and a jacket with a higher collar that covered the majority of his face, observed. A man of few words, he often goes unnoticed or is misunderstood, but should not be taken lightly. His clan and their use of insects in battle was known to be feared.

' _Akamaru is getting uneasy,'_ Kiba Inuzuka, a boy with red triangular markings on his cheeks and a jacket with a fur hood and cuffs, noticed the change in his ninja dog, _'He's able to sense an opponent's chakra just by their scent. This person isn't even in the room and he's shaking! What the hell?'_ he looked towards the door intently while Akamaru hid in his jacket, wondering just who was approaching it.

"You can come in," Iruka shouted towards the door, and the once-gossiping room turned silent. Everyone watched the door with anticipation, you could hear loud footsteps approaching. It was obvious this person was wearing wooden sandals, and as they got closer you could hear there were signs of a struggle.

"Let go of me you Pervy Sage! I said I don't want to, and that's final!" a loud voice sounded outside the door, and Iruka could only blink and stare.

"Would you shut up, idiot! First of all, you agreed not to call me that today! Second of all, what happened to your 'I will do anything to be the first female Hokage,' rule?!" a deep voice shouted back.

So far they've learned this new student is a female.

"You're a super pervert, you Pervy Sage, so I'll call you whatever I want to call you! I changed my mind, I don't want to take a stupid test! I don't get along with people well and you know it!"

Everyone could only stare in the direction of the voice and listen, Iruka realized that this girl indeed remembered that incident that caused Jiraiya to take her on a several-years-long journey. It's been scarred into her brain, and not being able to make friends her age was no help.

"Naruto!" the deep voice bellowed, and by this point everyone figured out it was Jiraiya's. "Stop being such a pain-in-my-ass and get in there! I have research to do!"

"You just want to be free of me for a day so you can go spy on the woman's baths!"

"It's research!"

"You giant pervert!"

"You stupid kid!"

"Argh, Pervy Sage, let me go!"

"Not a chance!" the door burst open after that, a large man with insanely unruly long white hair tied into a low pony tail and red markings from his eyes down his cheeks walked in. He wore a dark green robe with a red vest and red wooden sandals to match, a large green scroll hung from his robe to his lower back, and his horned forehead protector read 'Mount Myōboku'. In his right hand was the young girl they heard arguing with him, he was holding her up by her two long pigtails and his left hand held her two hands together to prevent her from using any jutsu.

"Sorry about that Iruka," Jiraiya mumbled, then shook the girl by her pigtails. "Brat, you apologize too!"

"No!"

"I won't buy you ramen for a month."

"I'm so extremely sorry for my behavior Jiraiya-sama, Iruka-sama," she bowed her head the best she could, everyone sweat-dropping at the scene in front of them.

"That's better," he dropped her and she landed on her feet, immediately pulling out her pigtails and rubbing her scalp. Her wild blonde hair reached down to her lower back when it wasn't styled up.

"That hurt, you Pervy Sage!" she growled at him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," his voice was laced with sarcasm. "No go on and introduce yourself, although they've probably all figured out you're huge idiot by now."

She turned to face the class, recognizing the judgmental stares already.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I'm twelve years old. I know my name is a boy's name, so you don't need to point that out," she put her hands on her hips and stared at the audience in front of her, everyone taking a good look at the girl for the first time.

Naruto was a little smaller than average, you could consider her frame petite. She wore a baggy orange jumpsuit and standard navy ninja sandals. Each side of her face was donned with three whisker like marks, and even the kids in the back row could clearly see her piercing blue eyes that contrasted against her tanned skin. Her bright yellow hair was still a wild mess from the moments before.

While everyone was looking at her, she was looking back at them. Sakura stood out to her because of her pink hair, it was hard to miss Sasuke's icy glare too, Kiba was easily noticed mostly because of the cute puppy in his hood, and Naruto couldn't help but stare at Shino for a few moments because of his ominous look.

The classroom was a decent size, all the students were sitting at desks that consisted of two or three to a row. The rows elevated as they got further back, and they were all facing the front which consisted of the teacher's podium and a large blackboard on the wall behind that.

Naruto was observing it all until she heard a voice right next to her left ear, "Now, was that so hard?" Jiraiya asked in the most condescending tone possible.

"Shut up," she cracked her knuckles and looked turned back around to him. "I'm going to knock you all the way to the Village Hidden in Sand!"

"Sure, sure," he waved her off and yawned, absentmindedly redirecting her punch that sent cracks through the wall and blackboard. "Oops," he scratched his head sheepishly, then turned to Iruka who was gaping in horror. "Just send me a bill," he winced when Naruto pulled her hand out and the entire wall looked like it was going to cave in. "Naruto, you made the mess, now reinforce the wall so it doesn't come crumbling down."

"Why do I have to?" she whined catching a huge piece of rubble in her right hand and tossing it aside.

"No ramen for half a year," he threatened, and the small girl was weaving hand signs before you knew it.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall," she slammed her hand into the ground, the pieces of wall that had already collapsed floated back into position and the ones in the process of crumbling stopped. Several beams of earth shot up from the ground and supported the wall. It was still obviously damaged, but it wasn't going to come down anytime soon.

"Now, apologize to everybody," Jiraiya glared at her.

"Uhh," she scratched her head sheepishly, "sorry 'bout that, dattebayo…"

"Dattebayo?" a girl with long pale blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail, but her bangs covered her right eye, asked. This was Ino Yamanaka, or 'Ino-pig' as Sakura would say. Her blue eyes were pupil-less and she gave off an aura of over-confidence. The purple top and spilt-skirt she wore was accompanied with bandages that acted as shorts and covered her stomach. On both arms she wore white sleeves that started a few inches below her shoulder.

"Aw shit, I'm trying to stop that habit!" she pulled on her hair in frustration until being smacked into the ground.

"I told you to stop with that language," Jiraiya chided.

Naruto slowly sat up and rubbed her face, her eyes ablaze with anger.

"Well I'm going to get going now. Lots of things to do, us Sannin are extremely busy people you know! Bye!" Jiraiya quickly vanished, leaving Iruka's class with the small hell-raiser.

"Maybe you just need a snack to calm down," a chubby boy who was eating potato chips blurted out. Everyone's necks snapped to him; Choji Akimichi. His light brown hair was fuzzily short, and he was most recognizable by the reddish-pink swirl-like marks on both of his cheeks.

"Maybe you should stop eating you fa-" Naruto started to make a beeline for him, but the student next to him fell out of his seat and right into her path.

"Ah, how troublesome," Shikamaru _accidentally_ blocked Naruto's path, cutting her off before she could finish her sentence. _'She owes me one,'_ he sighed internally.

"Were you asleep or something?" Naruto glared at him, resisting the urge to kick him into the wall for getting in her way.

Before he could answer, Iruka quickly butted in, "Uhh Naruto, why don't you take a seat next to…" he hastily scanned the classroom for someone who wouldn't provoke the blonde, "Sasuke, can you raise your hand?" He was the only kid who wouldn't stir up unnecessary trouble, other than Shino, but he was going to be on her team anyways. Considering he just saw her using Earth Style so easily without hesitation, he knew this girl would pass the genin test.

The Uchiha raised his hand, and the blonde stomped her way to the seat next to him. He thought she was going to be a total pain, like all the other girls in the class obsessed with him, but she was surprisingly refreshing. It was obvious the girl was a tomboy through and through, and when she sat down next to him he heard her mumble about something about the 'Pervy Sage' with frequent curse words while putting her hair back into two pigtails.

"Well, usually the genin test is just one test, but since Naruto is new we need scores on her other shinobi abilities. So our class will test last and-" he froze when three shuriken landed perfectly on the ever-thin edge on the top of his clipboard. He looked around for the culprit but no one looked like they had made the movements necessary to do that.

"You were saying?" a voice sounded from above. Upon looking up, Iruka saw Naruto standing on the ceiling and was surprised that she got there unnoticed. Her hair was pulled into a braid and tucked into her jacket, and he looked back to the Naruto next to Sasuke with her hair in pigtails. That Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke, and the Naruto on the ceiling jumped down and landed next to him. She pulled the shuriken out of the clipboard and put them back into her weapons pouch, taking her braided hair out of her shirt after words.

"Shadow Clone, huh?" Iruka shouldn't be surprised at this point, this girl was the product of training with a Sannin for all twelve years of her life.

"When the Pervy Sage smacked me into the ground, that's when I switched," she shrugged.

"It seems Jiraiya-sama trained you well," he didn't like his first impression of the girl, but he also couldn't help but feel bad for her. Looks like she was only comfortable around Jiraiya, and all the other times she closed herself off.

"Is there anything else you need a score on?" she asked.

"Well you need to take some written tests too, but it's obvious you're well trained in shinobi arts, so that's all that remains for your test."

"Written … tests?" she paled.

"That's right. There are three in total that I made to get an evaluation on – " he stopped talking when he realized Naruto was gone.

"Sensei, she just vanished!" Sakura called out.

"Transportation Jutsu, huh?" Iruka sighed while Shikamaru could be heard saying his signature 'Troublesome,' remark.

* * *

Jiraiya found her on top of her father's stone head. She was looking out at the village and judging by the frequent sighs he heard, she was either sulking or thinking.

"I heard you bailed at the mention of written tests," he plopped down to the left of her, admiring the view of the Hidden Leaf. It was about noon, so the sun was beating down mercilessly.

"You and I both know I'd fail those," she sighed, again, and brought her knees up to her chest. The breeze was blowing enough to make her braid and Jiraiya's ponytail to blow with it. Leaves were floating about as well, truly making the village fit its name.

"Iruka decided to pass you just on the skills that he saw, but without the other scores it makes you the lowest rank of the class," he crossed his legs and leaned back on his arms, glancing over at Naruto slightly.

"I don't care about rank, I don't even care about being a genin. I just want to be the Hokage one day, like Dad," she tapped the stone monument beneath her. "I want people to acknowledge me, not brush me off like I don't exist. Mom and Dad worked so hard to save the village, I want to protect it too."

 _'Minato, Kushina, I wish you could see her now,'_ he smiled fondly at her, her braid blowing gently while surrounded by leaves. Although only twelve, she had grown so much. It was the right decision to take her out of the village when he did, but bringing her back was going to be difficult.

"Pervy Sage, what're you staring at? What's with the creepy smile?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, nothing," he shrugged it off, knowing the girl hated when he got emotional about her. "You know, you have to go get your headband right about now."

"Do I really?" she groaned, rolling over in her ball-like-state to her right side so her back faced Jiraiya.

"Unless you want to repeat the genin test next year, which means another year later in becoming Hokage. You have to be an official Ninja to become the Hokage you know. Plus I'll treat you to ramen."

"Unlimited."

"Five bowls."

"Twenty then."

"Seven."

"Seventeen."

"Fifteen."

She quickly stood up, ran over to Jiraiya, and yanked on his sleeve, "Let's go then, you Pervy Sage!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming you brat," he stood up and she practically threw him off of the monument. She ran quickly across the tops of buildings towards the Academy, the Sannin following behind her while silently laughing.

 _'Honestly, her obsession with ramen comes in handy sometimes,'_ he thought.

They landed in front of the school, a huge crowd of parents and children were celebrating out front. Upon her arrival, the adults started whispering and gossiping among themselves. Jiraiya made sure to stay close to the girl as they walked inside, it didn't help that she had extremely distinguishing features. As soon as people saw the 'blonde hair, blue eyed, whiskered girl,' they knew she was the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails. It made her childhood hell, even with one of the legendary Sannin there to protect her.

Inside the assigned room, they waited in line to get her headband. Once they got to the front, the Academy chūnin in charge was hesitant to give her one.

"I'm sorry but-" they started, but Jiraiya stepped in front of Naruto.

"What's the problem?"

"I don't think that-"

"Well then, you can take it up with Jiraiya," he set his hands down, rather forcefully, on the desk that stood between the two ninja.

"Jiraiya-sama?! One of the Sannin?" the chūnin stood up and gaped at him.

"In the flesh," he leaned closer, murder evident in his eyes.

"Pervy Sage, you don't have to fight your battles for me," Naruto tugged on his shirt, a mixture of sadness and frustrations coursing through her eyes.

"No, Naruto. Your parents entrusted you to me, so I'll deal with jerks like these. They're not worth your time anyways."

Naruto stared at the middle ranked ninja handing out the headbands, who looked at her with pure disgust and revolt.

"Here, you damn fox," he picked one up and threw it at her, which she caught.

"Thanks," she mumbled, turning her head to the ground and running outside. Jiraiya watched her go and glared back at the target of his rage.

"I wonder what the difference in strength is between a Sannin and a chūnin. I wouldn't mind finding out sometime," he growled, his chakra becoming palpable as his clenching hands cracked the desk they were resting on. "Be careful on your way home tonight," he turned around and walked out swiftly, leaving the chūnin shaking against the wall. The scene unfolded in front of one Sasuke Uchiha, who was waiting behind Naruto and Jiraiya to get his headband. He had waited until his fangirls had gotten theirs and then slipped in when no one was looking, only to see Naruto say her name and the attitude of the headband distributer change.

"Sasuke Uchiha," he said his name and received a headband from a trembling hand, tying it around his forehead while analyzing everything that he just saw.

 _'There's something going on here.'_

He walked through the halls and outside to see everyone chatting excitedly with their friends or their parents, but he didn't have anyone like that to talk to. Instead he leaned against the outside of the building and waited for the announcement of when to show up tomorrow. Out of the corner of his eye he saw what he recognized as Jiraiya, so he turned to get a better view.

Naruto had hid herself up in the tree right outside the Academy, and Jiraiya was standing on the swing to get closer to her. He saw him hop from the swing into the tree, then it looked like he patted Naruto on the head. A frog appeared in a puff of smoke on a branch next to Jiraiya, moved its mouth a bit, and the Sannin said some words in response. He said something to Naruto, then disappeared with the frog.

He couldn't help but wonder, not that it was any of his business, but he had taken an interest in the girl ever since she walked in the classroom. She was trained by one of the Sannin, so she had to be skilled. His purpose in life required him to be strong, so anyone who seemed to be a worthy opponent peaked his interest.

The same teacher that gave Naruto and her guardian a problem walked outside with a few others and announced what time each class should report tomorrow to be assigned to their team. With one last glance towards the tree, he walked off and left the girl to deal with her own issues.

* * *

Iruka's class gathered at nine in the morning to wait for their jōnin teachers. Everyone was wearing their new headband somewhere and was in their respective ninja attire, the only one missing was Naruto. She showed up twenty minutes late, arriving by Jiraiya using the Teleportation Jutsu to appear in the middle of the classroom holding the girl by the her hair.

"This is what happens with you oversleep," he dropped her on the floor right in front of the podium, then vanished right after. Upon closer inspection, you could tell she was soaking wet. Her hair looked like a rat's nest, she was in a white tank top, which revealed she was actually quite developed and muscular, and black shorts that could be mistaken for boxers, aka: her pajamas, but her headband was tied around her left ankle. Even being soaked, the girl had no issues going back to sleep.

Everyone would've laughed if they hadn't seen her behavior yesterday. No one wanted to approach her, so Sasuke stood up and walked over.

"Oi," he poked her with his foot, to which she grabbed and clenched with frightening strength.

"Pervy Sage, you try to wake me up again and I'll make sure you'll never be able to spy on the woman's bath for the rest of your days," she released Sasuke's foot, to which he took and kicked her across the room. She smacked into the wall next to the one she basically destroyed, her eyes flew open and in the next moment she was holding him against the opposite wall by his neck.

"Bastard, what the hell are you doing here?!"

"Take a look around, loser. Jiraiya-sama dropped you off here," he wheezed out, trying his best to maintain his composure, but that was hard when someone was restricting your airways.

She glanced around and found everyone staring at their scene, along with the girls saying she should let go of their 'beloved Sasuke-kun,'.

"Sorry," she let him go, and looked down to her ankle, "So that's what he tied on it earlier," she reached down and undid the knot, looking at the shiny metal in deep thought.

"Hn," he couldn't blame her, he would try to kill someone who woke him up like that too. It was easy to figure out that Jiraiya dumped water on her, which Sasuke discovered was ice-cold since her wet hand was against his neck, then after she failed to get up he tied her headband around her ankle and dropped her off in the classroom.

"What time is it?" she asked, looking up at the clock and realizing it was 9:24. "Oh, that's why he was so pissed off," she sighed and made her way to her seat, Sasuke in tow, leaving little puddles as she went. Once she sat down she started working on her hair, squeezing the water out of it and running through the tangles with her fingers. After realizing she didn't have a hair tie, she used her headband to it up in a ponytail, making sure the Leaf's symbol was facing the front.

"Maybe I'll wear it like this," she mumbled, tying it tightly so it wouldn't come undone. Her hair was immensely thick and she had so much of it that it worked out well, but she just shrugged and crossed her arms.

Iruka came in a few minutes later to announce the teams, raising an eyebrow at the soaking wet floor and the soaking-wet-pajama-clad-Naruto before continuing. By the end of his announcements, Naruto found out she was assigned to a team with the Sasuke boy her clone sat next to the other day and someone named Sakura. They were already sitting in the same row, so they just stayed put while everyone else moved around to sit with their team. The others girls were upset they didn't get paired with Sasuke while Sakura was fangirling over it. She kept trying to strike up a conversation with him, but he just replied with lots of 'Hns,' or 'Hms,' or no response at all.

 _'Well, they seem to be alright … I guess. Sasuke's not talkative … well that's better for me anyways, trying to make conversation would just be awkward. That Sakura girl seems to be infatuated with Sasuke like the rest of the class, so I probably won't have to worry about her trying to talk to me either. Ah, it doesn't matter anyways, it's not like I care,'_ Naruto thought while trying to find ways to keep herself occupied.

 _'I can't believe I got on the same team as Sasuke-kun! This is a one in a life time chance, cha! I just hope that Naruto girl isn't a problem,'_ she glanced over to her and was pleased, but disgusted, to find the girl cleaning out her right ear with her pinky. _'Looks like she doesn't care, perfect! Sasuke-kun, look this way, notice how much more lady-like and cuter I am than her!'_

 _'Naruto Uzumaki, trained by a Sannin since her birth … Interesting, she must be strong,'_ Sasuke glanced at the girl, obviously having high expectations for her, while she ungracefully kicked her feet up on the desk and stared at the ceiling.

They were the last team left after a while. Naruto fell asleep within the first half hour after she took her feet off the desk and rested her head on it, burying her face in her arms to shield out the light. Sakura was overjoyed because she was able to have 'alone time' with Sasuke, but he wasn't having any of it.

A few hours later, Naruto bolted upright and stood up. Sasuke, who nodded off, opened his eyes at the sudden action. Sakura stooped eye-ogling sleeping-Sasuke and looked at her.

"Naruto-san, what's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"You can drop the formalities, but someone's coming down the hall," she said, and the other two turned their attention to the door. It opened, revealing a man with gray hair that literally defied gravity itself. He was wearing standard Hidden Leaf shinobi dress, the only thing different was that he wore a mask that covered his face and nose. His headband was pulled down over his left eye as a make-shift eyepatch, so the only reveled spot of his face was his right eye.

"Oi, what kind of jōnin is over," Sakura glanced at the clock, "three hours late?!" she fired at him, obviously annoyed.

"Well, you see-" he stopped when a splinter of wood lodged itself right on the tip of his nose through his mask. Starting at it for a moment with his one good eye, he looked back and saw the under-dressed blonde holding a corner of the desk she was sitting at.

"The liar's nose is the one that grows," she clenched the piece of wood until it broke into several shards.

"My first impression …" he pulled the sliver of wood out of his nose and flicked it back at Naruto, who caught it between two fingers just before it pierced her right eye, "I hate all of you. Meet me at the roof," he disappeared the moment the last word left his mouth.

* * *

The silver-haired jōnin sat on the rail guarding the edge of the roof, while the three of them sat on the steps across from him.

"Alright, we'll start with introductions. Tell me your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, that sort of thing," his one visible eye watched the three of them to see who was going to go first as he absentmindedly rubbed his itchy nose.

"You're the one who was late, so you should go first," Naruto pointed at him accusingly.

"Says the one who tried to give me a nose piercing … Anyways, my name is Kakashi Hatake. I don't feel like telling you my likes or dislikes. I don't have many hobbies, and I've never really thought about a dream."

"So all we know is his name?" Sakura mumbled to which Naruto nodded.

"Ok, pajama girl, your turn," Kakashi stared at her, curious about her answer.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen and the ramen stand I went to last night, although I never got the name of the place. I dislike judgmental people, Pervy Sage's habit of peeping on woman's baths-"

As she stated that, a loud sneeze and a huge set of screams crying 'Pervert!' was heard in the distance.

"- the three minutes it takes for instant ramen to cook, and I hate the food on Mount Myōboku. My hobbies are to train, compare different types of ramen, and Pervy Sage makes me proofread the _Icha Icha_ novels he's writing, so I guess it's a hobby of mine now. My dream is to be the first female Hokage and to protect the village, as well as make everybody acknowledge me," she had another dream, or rather goal that she desperately wanted to complete, but not even her guardian knew about it. No way in hell she'd ever reveal it to these strangers.

 _'It's like a little Minato-sensei and Kushina-sama mixed into one,'_ Kakashi was impressed with her, he even smiled slightly behind his mask, but he couldn't help but be jealous over her proof-reading the next novel of his favorite book series. "Ok, next," he set his personal desires aside for now, making a mental note to bribe Naruto with ramen later to leak some details, since she seemed to love it dearly, and focused on his next student.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. What I like, or rather who I like is," she glanced at Sasuke. "My hobbies are," she glanced at Sasuke again. "My dream is," another glance at Sasuke along with a squeal.

"And? What about your dislikes?" he needed a little more than 'fidget-fidget glance at Sasuke and squeal'.

"Ino-pig and my other rivals!" she seethed.

 _'Girls her age are probably more interested in love than ninja arts … well except for Naruto, I guess.'_

"Lastly," Kakashi called out, setting his eye on the brooding boy.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I have a lot of dislikes but no likes in particular. I don't feel like summoning up my ambition as just a dream, but I do have an ambition. The ambition to restore my clan and without fail to kill a certain man," the aura around him was deadly.

 _'I knew it,'_ his right eye narrowed slightly.

 _'Sasuke-kun is so cool!'_ Sakura thought, completely oblivious to the murderous intent radiating off of the boy.

 _'Restore?'_ Naruto looked at him questioningly. It didn't seem like something she should ask about, but she'd talk to Jiraiya later.

"Good! The three of you are very interesting and different. We'll have a mission tomorrow," Kakashi's attitude completely contrasted Sasuke's deadly one.

"Mission? What kind of mission?" Sakura asked.

"We'll do what we can with one jōnin and three inexperienced brats … a survival exercise. Nothing like you've done at the Academy before," he started laughing while thinking about it, making the three before him get agitated.

"What's so funny?" Naruto put her hands on her knees and stared at him.

"Well, if I tell you then you'll get disenchanted," he stopped laughing, then looked deadly serious. "Of all the genin graduates, only nine will be recognized as junior ninjas. The rest will be sent back to the Academy. In other words this exercise is extremely difficult and has a failure rate of 66% or higher," looking at the expressions on their faces, his tone of voice becoming aloof again, "See, I was right!"

"So, then what was the purpose of that stupid test?" the so called 'pajama girl' crossed her legs and leaned her head on one arm.

"Just to see who has the potential of becoming genin. Can't do anything about it, that's just the way it is. I'll be determining whether you pass or fail, so come prepared. We'll meet at five in the morning," Kakashi got off the railing and turned around, "You're dismissed. Oh, and best not to eat breakfast. You'll throw up," after that, he disappeared.

Naruto stood up, and headed for the edge of the roof. She was about to jump over the railing, but stopped when a voice called out to her.

"Don't be late, you seem to have a habit of that," Sasuke warned.

"Whatever," she jumped off and sprinted across rooftops, while the other two preteens watched until she was out of sight.

 _'Naruto totally gets that she needs to give Sasuke-kun and I alone time! Score one for me!'_ Sakura's inner self cheered and then said, "Sasuke-kun, I was thinking we could walk home together!" she had hearts in her eyes as she stared at him.

"No."

* * *

 **We've got a FemNaruto, woooooooooooooo!**

 **Feel free to drop a review! Actually, please. Please. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee *cue puppy dog eyes* I wanna know what you guys think!**

 **Until next time ;D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it! Actually, I don't know of a country that doesn't ... Anyways!**

 **Big thanks to my Beta: Itooshii Koneko!**

 **Sorry for any spelling/grammar errors! I searched high and low for them, several times, so hopefully there aren't any.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

At five in the morning at one of the Hidden Leaf's various training grounds, two of the three members of Team Kakashi were walking towards their meeting point: the three logs in front of the Memorial of Hero's. One of them was Sakura, who looked half asleep as she stumbled while rubbing her eyes. The other was Sasuke, who had a cold glare on his face as he walked.

"Morning, Sasuke-kun," she yawned, holding both arms above her head as she stretched.

He didn't answer, instead he looked around several times, "Where's Naruto?"

"Naruto?" Sakura furiously tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes as she looked around for the blonde. "Looks like she's not here yet."

His expression got harsher at the thought of her being late and risking failure for the rest of them, but he said nothing.

In the absolute darkness, the two preteens waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.

The sun was high in the sky and they were still waiting. Sakura looked ready to punch someone's lights out as she sat on the ground, and Sasuke was impatiently pacing back and forth.

"Yo," Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves, looking as aloof and carefree as ever.

"You're late!" Sakura angrily stood up and pointed at him.

"Well, you see a black cat crossed my path this morning. I had to take the long way around…" he seemed to be smiling sheepishly behind his mask while running his right hand through his already-messy hair.

"Liar," the pinkette huffed and crossed her arms, while Sasuke just stared.

"Are we ready to begin?" the jōnin asked, taking off his backpack and setting it down.

"Naruto's not here," the Uchiha announced.

"She's obviously irresponsible and doesn't deserve to be a ninja. Right, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura grinned and looked over to her love, but he completely ignored her.

"Hm?" Kakashi looked around for a minute before stopping to his right. "Naruto, you didn't let them know you were here?"

To this, the two pre-genins whipped their heads to where Kakashi was looking. Lounging in a tree was none other than Naruto herself. Sporting the loud orange jump suit, her hair was back in pigtails except for the shorter rogue strands that framed her face. The Hidden Leaf headband was tied around her forehead, but was practically covered up by her locks.

She jumped over to them and answered, "I can't help it if they suck at observing their general surroundings."

"No need to be so harsh," Sakura mumbled, while Sasuke continued to observe.

"Let's get started. For your test … Hm? Naruto, what're you doing?" Kakashi stopped mid-explanation as he watched Jiraiya's student pull a kunai knife out of her weapons pouch.

"Oh, I'm going to stab myself," she answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Why would you do that?!" Sakura was appalled as she watched her, her right hand guiding the kunai closer to her left palm.

"You're not the real Naruto, are you?" Kakashi sighed.

"Not the real Naruto?" the other kunoichi stared over the Naruto before her, not understanding what her Sensei was talking about.

"You're a Shadow Clone," Sasuke stated.

"Bingo," she nodded and shoved the knife through her left hand. The moment it happened, the Naruto burst into a puff of smoke.

"She's a clever girl," Kakashi mumbled while watching the remains of the Shadow Clone disperse. A moment later, Naruto appeared eating cup ramen.

"That took a while," she slurped some noodles into her mouth, watching her assigned jōnin and two teammates stare at her.

"You sent a Shadow Clone in your place? On top of that you're eating, which I said not to do," Kakashi crossed his arms and watched her finish off the rest of her meal.

"I thought I'd scope the situation out first," she shrugged, holding the cup upside down and letting the last drops of soup fall into her mouth. "Glad I did, looks like you have time issues. Also, I'm not so afraid of throwing up that I would skip a meal. Especially before a mission."

As soon as the words left her mouth, you could see the realization hit Sasuke and Sakura like they had been smacked into a mountain side.

"Kakashi-sensei, I don't understand though. Why would Naruto send a Shadow Clone in her place? Why did it stab itself?" Sakura asked.

"I don't expect you two to know much about it … Basically when a Shadow Clone is destroyed, all the experiences of that clone are transferred back to the original. I assume she sent it in her place so she herself wouldn't have to show up early, with the orders that when we were about to begin to pop itself. The only way a Shadow Clone pops though is if it gets damaged, for instance stabbed. Once it stabbed itself, the original Naruto regained its memories and showed up. Shadow Clones are mainly used for infiltration, but they're also good for a number of other things," he explained.

"Wait," Sakura accusingly peered at Naruto, "how do we know you're the real one?"

Naruto brought her right hand up to her mouth, put her thumb between her canine teeth, and bit down, "Shadow Clones don't bleed," she answered, holding her hand out as blood freely dripped from her thumb.

"Are you a masochist or something?! You seem to have no problems with hurting yourself!" the pink-haired kunoichi nearly screamed.

"I've been through worse," was the blonde's response.

"Ok, ok, that's enough," Kakashi intervened, "We're going to get started now, this is how it's going to go," he set an alarm clock down on the middle trunk and pressed the button on top. "You have until noon," he pulled two bells off his belt, "to get these bells away from me. Those who fail go back to the Academy."

"But Sensei, there are only two bells!" Sakura interjected.

"Excellent observation! It means a maximum of two will become real genins. So one of you could pass, two could, or even none. Those who get a bell get to have lunch, and those who don't will be tied to a trunk while the others eat. If all three fail, I'll tie you all up and eat right in front of you."

"So that's why you didn't want us to eat," Sasuke monotoned, now regretting his decision of listening to Kakashi.

"It was part of the lesson. While on real missions you might have to go for days without food, but you still have to complete your assignment. The opposite is also true too, you can't be so concerned with how your body looks that you'll forsake a meal," he particularly glared at Sakura with that last statement. "Now," he jingled the bells and put them back on his belt, "let's get started, come at me with the intent to kill. Don't worry, none of you will be able to inflict any real damage on me. Ready, set, start!" and the three of them scattered.

Kakashi pulled a book out of his weapons pouch and started to read it, casually tracking Sakura and Sasuke's movements, but frowned when he couldn't sense Naruto anywhere.

* * *

Sasuke split apart from the rest of the group and hid up in a tree, concealing his chakra and slowing his breath.

' _How am I going to catch a jōnin off guard? I need to hurry up and get one of those bells, that idiotic Sensei was so late it's only about an hour and a half until noon,'_ he scowled, trying to form attack plans as he observed Kakashi. _'It's going to be hard on an empty stomach,'_ his stomach violently demanded food.

' _I have fifteen kunai and thirty shuriken on me … If I can get away without being detected I can lure him into a trap and use one of my fire jutsus. It seems like the best idea at the moment to – wait. Is … Is he reading a porn book?!'_ his eyes widened when Team Seven's leader pulled out an orange book covered with hearts and a huge cancel sign on the front. _'Is he even taking this test seriously?!'_

He wanted to groan at the frustration this goof of a jōnin was bringing him, but that would mean getting spotted by said jōnin. Sasuke was careful in his getaway, running off to set up a few traps and lure in the perverted bell holder.

* * *

' _Safe!'_ Sakura had successfully hidden herself under a bush, peaking out at her surroundings. From the angle, she could only see Kakashi reading some sort of book. _'Is that …? Kakashi-sensei, you're a disgrace to women everywhere! Cha!'_ she was fuming, but didn't risk voicing her opinions. At the same moment, Kakashi coincidentally sneezed.

' _That doesn't matter now, I can scold Sensei later! I should go looking for Sasuke-kun and team up with him! I can't believe I listened to that thing about breakfast, I didn't even eat dinner last night!'_ she made a quick escape and started to look for Sasuke, all the while pulling leaves out of her long hair and trying to ignore her body's request for a meal.

* * *

After thirty minutes of silence, and standing in the brutally hot sun, Kakashi started to stroll around while continuing to read.

' _This chakra … I'm getting close to Sasuke,'_ when he looked up a few moments later, he saw him. "Yo, Sasuke. Fancy meeting you here," Kakashi greeted him, never taking his eye off his book.

"Fight me seriously, Kakashi-sensei. Put the book away," he demanded.

"I want to know what happens next," was his answer, causing a tick mark to form on Sasuke's brow. The pre-genin threw a kunai knife behind him, which cut through a rope. A large log came hurling at Kakashi, but he simply jumped over it and landed back on his feet.

"Not bad," he noted.

Seconds later, half of Sasuke's shuriken were flying at him from behind and the rest were coming from the front.

"Oh?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow, and jumped high into the air to avoid them all.

' _There!'_ Sasuke started to weave hand signs, and feeling the change in his chakra caused Kakashi to stop reading mid-air and look at him.

' _Those signs … No way, he shouldn't be able to perform that jutsu,'_ he put his book away, as if to protect it and its precious contents, and paid full attention to the boy in front of him.

' _Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu,'_ Sasuke circled his lips with his fingers and blew fire. It took the shape of a massive fire ball that was heading straight for Kakashi.

' _He purposely got me in the air so I wouldn't be able to move, that's good planning. He's probably has capabilities of at least a chūnin depending on his taijutsu skills.'_

Sasuke watched the fire ball engulf his Sensei, and wasn't surprised when there was no sign of him in the air.

' _Where is he? To the left? Right? Above?'_ he frantically searched for him, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a hand grab his left ankle.

"I'm where you least expect me," came from underground. "Earth Style: Head Hunter Jutsu!" the next moment, Sasuke was reduced to being only a head.

"Nice try, Sa-su-ke-kun," his 'decapitator' was kneeling in front of him and patted his head.

"Hn," Sasuke was pissed because a) he was trapped, and b) this jōnin wasn't taking him seriously at all.

"If you see Naruto, send her my way. I'm off to mess with Sakura," Kakashi waved to him as he walked away with one hand, in the other was his book.

' _Damn it! I should've tried taijutsu first … Wait, he said to send Naruto his way. Does that mean he doesn't know where she is?'_

* * *

' _Got to find Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun, where're you?! Don't tell me … did Kakashi-sensei get you?! No, please, no!'_ Sakura was running wildly throughout the training grounds, her sole focus was to find the love of her, and many other girl's, lives.

"Sa – Sakura," came a weak voice, and she abruptly stopped. Looking to her right, she saw a kunai and shuriken skewered Sasuke.

Never, in any of The Leaf's history, was a scream heard so loud and so wide-spread.

"Sakura, you were at the top of your class with Sasuke, I was hoping you'd be able to see through a simple genjutsu," Kakashi sighed as he watched her from his spot up in a tree. The 'dying' Uchiha dissolved into mist and now he had no clue what to do. Sasuke wasn't going to be mobile for a while, Sakura looked like her soul left her body, and he had absolutely no idea where Naruto was.

"I guess I'll just hang out then …" he mumbled to himself, leaving a dead-looking Sakura behind. He didn't bother to read his book, instead he focused on finding Naruto because now it was really getting on his nerves.

* * *

"Hmm? What happened?" Sakura yawned and sat up, snapping her legs closed when she realized they were wide open. "Where am – Sasuke-kun!" her head snapped around violently when she remembered the events leading to her unconsciousness, looking for a body covered in weapons. "Sasuke-kun! Don't leave me here all alone!" she cried out, running in random directions looking for him.

"Sakura?" a voice sounded to the left of her, after she ran around for a while, and when she looked down a head sticking out of the ground.

"Sasuke-kun's body-less head is speaking!" she screamed, before passing out again.

He raised an eyebrow at this, but then focused on getting free.

* * *

"Oi, wake up! Sakura, wake up!" Sasuke finally managed to free himself from that stupid jutsu, after at least an hour of trying, and now he was trying to wake the girl that had feinted a while ago.

"Sasuke-kun?" she mumbled, opening her eyes and seeing none other than the owner of that name right in her face. "Sasuke-kun!" she swooned when she realized she was in his arms.

"Get up," his words sounded like ice, but at this point he was furious and almost out of time.

"Are you going after Kakashi-sensei again?" she pulled herself up, Sasuke had let go of her the moment he ordered her to get up.

"I engaged him in ninjutsu first, but I haven't tried taijutsu yet. I'm going, whether you follow me or not," he was about to run off, but stopped when Sakura called out to him.

"Sasuke-kun, it's basically already noon," she looked up to the sun, which was nearing the center of the sky. "Let's just give up, alright? We can't beat him, he's too strong. We'll just go back to the Academy together and try again next year, ok?"

"I can't afford to wait any longer!" he snapped at her, looking back slightly. "He's so strong … He was much stronger than me, even when he was my age. I can't wait another year, I'm not going back to the Academy!" he ran off.

Sakura followed him without a second thought, _'Is he talking about Kakashi-sensei?'_

* * *

They found Kakashi reading by the three logs. Sasuke instructed Sakura to keep quiet, as he snuck up on him from his blind side.

"Have either one of you seen Naruto?" Kakashi asked, not taking his eye off his book, and his attacker froze.

"Naruto? No, I haven't …" Sakura answered.

"It's not just me then, alright," he stood up and put his book away, turning to the boy who failed in his ambush-attempt. "You want to try once more, Sasuke?"

Kakashi was answered with a kick to his face, which he easily blocked. Sasuke's other leg swung around too, but he stopped that as well. A punch was directed as his jaw, but Kakashi leaned back to avoid it. When he did, he saw the smirk form on his attacker's face. The raven reached with one of his free hands and lightly touched a bell, causing it to jingle, but the next moment greeted him with his face being slammed into the ground.

"Oh, that was close. You managed to touch a bell," a weight was on his back, and Sasuke could only assume that Kakashi was sitting on him with his hands restrained and one of his feet on his head.

"What did you do?" Sasuke growled out. He was so close, so close to getting a bell, then the next moment Kakashi had him unable to move.

"It's not important, it's in the past," Kakashi brushed him off, then glanced around the area. "I still don't like that I can't sense Naruto."

"Hey, don't step on Sasuke-kun like that! Who gives you the right?!" Sakura charged at him with a kunai knife, but Kakashi's free leg flung her against one of the outer logs.

"I give myself the right, actually," he picked Sasuke up by the collar and dropped him against the log furthest away from Sakura. Using metal wire and rope, he tied up the boy before the girl. "Comfortable?" he asked.

"Hn," Sasuke looked away, obsessing over how he lost.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. I couldn't save you," Sakura sounded depressed, and Kakashi let out an extremely frustrated sigh.

"I have so many things I want to yell at you, but I don't want to repeat myself to Naruto later. Stay put, I'm going to –"

"Hey," Naruto suddenly appeared, sitting on top of the middle log, looking as bored as ever.

"Where've you been?" Sakura looked up at her.

"Around," she shrugged.

"Naruto, did you leave and come back?" Kakashi's one visible eye was scrutinizing her.

"No, I just happen to be an expert in concealing myself," she brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them.

"Well, I don't think I have to point out the obvious … You three fail, horribly. Back to the Academy you go! Bye, nice knowing you," the jōnin started to walk away, deciding that giving them a lecture would be pointless.

"Don't walk away! I demand a rematch, I'm not going back to that Academy!" Sasuke screamed out, surprising everyone because his actions completely contrasted his usual cool-and-collected demeanor.

"Oh, you really think you can beat me all by yourself? I'll admit you're skilled, since you touched a bell, but you're a thousand years too early to defeat me on your own," Kakashi turned around and waited to see his response.

"I don't need either of those two, they'll just weigh me down," he proclaimed.

"There lies your problem."

"What do you mean?" Sakura, considering she was 100% on Team-Sasuke, agreed with what he said.

"Did any one of you happen to think about why exactly you're on a team of three?"

No one answered.

"Sasuke," Kakashi's cold attitude was back. "You think so highly of yourself, that you don't need any help. Well guess what, that's not how it works. You're assigned to missions in squads to split the work evenly, everyone has their own strengths. You'll never get stronger unless you learn to rely on others. Sakura," he continued, "your one sole focus this whole time was finding Sasuke, and you even fell into a genjutsu because of it. Love doesn't have a place on missions, remember that," he growled. "Did even one of you think to search for Naruto? Out of all three of you, she's probably the only one who has a chance of winning against me alone. Think about it, she's been trained by Jiraiya-sama since her birth, but alas she decided to disappear.

"Naruto," his gaze was enough to turn a boulder into dust, "I'm most disappointed in you. You were trained by Jiraiya-sama, so I thought you would be able to figure this one out. In addition to that, you just vanished. You left your comrades alone while they were struggling. In the shinobi world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum," he was practically spitting the words out, wrath licking his tone.

"They weren't in mortal danger," Naruto defended herself. "If you actually killed one of them, you'd be marked as a criminal, so I highly doubt that –"

"That doesn't matter!" Kakashi snapped. "You have the strength and power to help them, yet you refused. In real mission situations, Sasuke's head would've been cut off and Sakura would've been dead the moment she fell for that genjutsu. You're not cocky like Sasuke, but the fact that you refused to get involved infuriates me."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled looking off to the side, feeling eerily similar to when Jiraiya would seriously scold her. "It's teamwork, right?"

"Exactly. Your teamwork is the worst I've ever seen, it's not even existent. That's why you three fail," at the last syllable, even the wind around them became still.

"One more time," Sasuke broke the silence, his head downcast. "Let all three of us try, one more time."

"Why exactly should I do that?" Kakashi crossed his arms, carefully watching them.

"You're a Leaf shinobi as well. If you turn your back on us because we made a mistake, then you'll just contradict yourself."

Kakashi's eye widened, then relaxed, "Alright," he walked back over to the memorial where the lunches were. "I'm going to take this and enjoy it," he picked up a box. "If anyone touches that other lunch, or if Naruto unties either Sasuke or Sakura, all three of you will be disqualified. I'll see you in an hour or so for your second chance," he explained, then vanished in a puff of smoke.

After a pregnant pause, "Naruto, why didn't you try to get a bell?" Sakura was curious, but was also trying to make conversation to pass the time.

"Personally, I don't really care."

"Why is that?"

The blonde shrugged, "Why do you love Sasuke so much?" she glanced down to Sakura, only to see her bright red and speechless. "See, it's something you can't really answer."

"It seems like it's deeper than that though," Sakura was still a violent shade of red, but kept looking up at Naruto. The other kunoichi was still in the same position, knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around them and her head resting on top, staring into the distance with eyes that just looked so … lonely. Her pigtails blew slightly with the breeze, and Sakura couldn't help but feel a heavy sadness penetrate heart when she caught a slight glance of those cerulean irises.

"Think whatever you want," Naruto looked away, but caught Sasuke staring at her with his icy obsidian's. "What?"

"Nothing," he looked off to the side, away from the two females, trying to ignore the feeling that he and Naruto were similar somehow. _'It's the same loneliness,'_ echoed throughout his mind.

"What…" Naruto started, which was a first for her to start a conversation, "What made you two want to become ninja? Why is it so important to you?"

Both were silent before, "I don't really know," Sakura confessed. "My parents enrolled me in the Academy, so I never really thought too much about it."

"What about you?" she looked over to Sasuke.

"I've already said it once, I don't need to repeat myself."

"That thing about wanting to kill a certain man? Revenge, huh?" she glanced up, squinting slightly from the sun. "What do you think is going to happen when you kill him? Do you think that it'll make you feel better?"

"That's none of your damn business," he was looking away, but his rage boiled in the words.

"I've seen many people fall to revenge, Sasuke. It's not pretty," she contemplated whether to continue or not, considering she wasn't used to this sort of thing – talking to people other than her guardian that is – but Kakashi's words stirred something inside of her and she found herself opening up ever so slightly, "In my twelve years with Pevy Sage, I've seen many people come after him. Every single one was hell-bent on revenge because he killed someone dear to them. He's a shinobi – a Sannin, killing enemies is inevitable, but he's not the kind of guy who likes to take lives. Each person tried to kill him with every cell of their body. They had no other purpose. They had nothing. They sacrificed everything, detached themselves from everything. Revenge had consumed them, down to the very last speck of their soul, and it's so very sad to watch someone do that to their self. It's an endless cycle of pain and hatred."

Sasuke didn't respond, but Naruto could guess that he was still thinking along the lines of, _'It's none of your damn business.'_

"We all have our demons, our pasts that haunts us," she hopped off the log and walked towards the last lunch. "That doesn't mean that it defines us. Being able to move forward from it probably shows more strength than letting it become a plague that devours you," she picked it up and sat down between Sasuke and Sakura, facing them. Sakura was staring at her intently, Sasuke was glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and both were speechless at the words coming out of the girl that seemed so closed off. "I didn't have a choice in becoming a ninja, so I don't really know the answer to the question I asked you. I want to protect the village, to become the Hokage, I know that," she unwrapped the lunch and opened it up, revealing rice, vegetables, and meat, "but that seems like a really shitty reason by itself. Maybe it falls along the lines of protecting the people who are close to me, but I only have three of those, and they're more than capable of protecting themselves.

"If I told you that I desperately want to break the cycle of pain and hatred, you'd probably call me crazy," it was Jiraiya's life mission – a prophecy that was bestowed upon him as a child – and having heard so much about it during her upbringing, she had decided to take the quest upon herself as well, "So, the question is: Do I chase after that impossible quest? Do I fight to protect the village I've barely lived in?" that treated her worse than dirt, that her parents sacrificed their lives to save, but they didn't need to know that, "Or do I fall to my own darkness?" she separated the two wooden chopsticks, picked up a clump of rice, and leaned over to Sakura. "Here, eat."

"But Kakashi-sensei said –"

"Don't worry about it. How're you supposed to fight on an empty stomach?" she pushed the rice closer to Sakura's mouth, and plopped it in when she opened it slightly.

"Thanks," Sakura spoke with her mouth full.

"Here's some for oh-so-serious too," Naruto did the same for Sasuke, who reluctantly let her feed him.

' _Wait … that's an indirect kiss!'_ Sakura nearly passed out at the thought, but tried not to let her excitement show. "Why did you tell us all of that?" she asked, attempting to calm herself. Naruto had been very distant, just as much as Sasuke, since the beginning. She disappeared during the test, showed back up when they lost, and proceeded to spout words of wisdom that you'd expect from someone much older than twelve years old for no apparent reason.

"A ninja's reasons for wanting to fight defines them, it's different from their ninja way though. I guess it's my crappy attempt to try and get to know you two better. Kakashi-sensei said that we had to use teamwork; how are we supposed to work as a team if we hardly know each other?"

An explosion of smoke shook the ground behind them, revealing a very angry looking Kakashi, "You three!" he looked like he could make armies of elite ninja run away with that stare. "You pass," his overflowing rage quickly turned into something as lethal as a newborn puppy.

"What?" the pinkette looked extremely confused, while Sasuke looked on in interest. Naruto stood up and tuned around, waiting for the jōnin to speak.

"Getting to know each other, that's a start to teamwork."

"I thought we were going to have to fight you?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to see if you would at least make an attempt to work together, and you did, but all of you need at least a hundred more years of experience with your teamwork to take me on," he yawned. "We'll meet at seven in the morning tomorrow," he looked at all their faces, which were practically saying _'For what?'_ , "Your first real mission. Don't be late!" he disappeared after that.

"Like he's one to talk," Sakura grumbled, still remembering her and Sasuke waiting for hours on end that morning.

Naruto set the lunch down on top of the middle log and untied the other two, Sakura before Sasuke.

"You guys can share the rest of the lunch, I'll see you tomorrow," she started to walk off, feeling too lazy to use the Transportation Jutsu, but stopped when she heard someone running up behind her. Turning around she saw Sakura with Sasuke slowly following behind. "Something wrong?"

"I just wanted to say thanks," she bowed deeply. "Without you we would've gone back to the Academy. I know it doesn't mean much to you, since you have Jiraiya-sama, but for Sasuke-kun and I … Just, thank you!"

"Uhh, please don't bow like that 'dattebayo," her verbal tic slipped out, something that happened when she was nervous, worked up, or something similar.

"I mean it though!" Sakura stood upright and her jade eyes stared at Naruto with an intensity that she never knew existed. "Thank you!"

"It's fine, really," Naruto was slightly blushing from all the praise as she self-consciously rubbed the back of her neck, her eyes not quite sure what to focus on. She accidentally met Sasuke's gaze and he gave her a nod. Considering what Naruto knew of his personality … that was his way of expressing gratitude.

"Do you want to walk home together?" Sakura asked, and Naruto's eyes widened.

"O-Oh, um ok," she nodded, getting flustered that someone other than Jiraiya was taking an interest in her. It didn't go unnoticed by the other two that she was slowly starting to loosen up.

"Coming, Sasuke-kun?" even though he refused her invitation yesterday, Sakura tried again in hopes that Naruto's speech and Kakashi's lecture about teamwork would maybe convince him otherwise.

"Hn," it wasn't a direct response, but he trailed behind the two as Sakura tried to talk to Naruto about hair products. Seems like something changed his mind after all.

From a distance, Kakashi watched the three of them walk off, a slight smile hidden beneath his mask.

Jiraiya appeared behind him, nonchalantly leaning against a tree, "She's only talked to me about that kind of stuff. It was most likely that speech that you gave them, she probably felt like the failure of the other two was her fault and wanted to try and make up for it. I don't blame her frankly, I've talked to her a lot about the importance of team work … but I didn't expect her to open herself up like that."

"I didn't expect her to disappear for the test," Kakashi countered.

"That's why I hung around, to make sure she didn't make a complete break for it. She was here, but like she said, she's an expert in concealing herself. Looks like those two might be able to crack that hard exterior of hers though," the Sannin couldn't look happier as he watched Sakura attempt to talk to Naruto.

"She doesn't act like that around you though, does she?"

"No. If you saw her when we're alone, you'd think she's a totally different person."

"Does it have something to do with what happened back –"

"Kakashi," he abruptly stopped him, "I'd rather not relive that," he winced, the memories he tried so hard to bury were creeping back up.

"Sorry," stepping back from the line that Jiraiya drew, he tried again, "So, what exactly have you been teaching her all these years? I couldn't sense her anywhere."

"Now, where's the fun if I tell you that?" the so called 'Pervy Sage' stuck his tongue out at him, and Kakashi rolled his eyes at his child-like behavior.

* * *

 **Please leave a review, I'd love to hear your thoughts!**

 **Just a side note: Although listed as "Naruto" instead of "Naruko", this Naruto is female! Naruko is a fandom-made name, but I prefer to use Naruto. I have her listed in the characters as Naruko so it's easier for femNaruto fans to find, but that's it!**

 **Hope you're all doing well! See you next chapter :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, here it is! Man, I worked so hard on this chapter, I lost track of how many times I rewrote it too. I really hope you guys like it!**

 **Big thanks to my Beta who puts up with me: _Itooshii Koneko_!**

 **I hope you guys enjoy!**

 **Please excuse any spelling/grammar errors for I have read over this so many times that I started to get sick of my own writing.**

* * *

"Oh? You're up early," Jiraiya, clad in a black tank top and sweatpants that contrasted against his horrible mess of white hair, was reading a newspaper and drinking his morning coffee. He noticed a mostly-asleep Naruto stumble out of her bedroom in a large orange shirt with a fishcake on the front and baggy orange shorts.

"Not by choice. We have a mission in," she moved her own awful mess of blonde hair out of her eyes while squinting at the clock, "forty-five minutes."

"I thought you don't care about being a ninja," he took of sip from his mug, curiously glancing at her from the top of his reading material.

"I don't," she staggered over to the fridge in the kitchen, took out a carton of orange juice, and sat down across from him at the rectangular table. Taking a swig from it, she continued, "but if I don't go the others suffer from it and it's not like I have anything better to do so…" at a loss of words, she resorted to gulping the beverage.

 _'She doesn't want to admit she changed her mind, huh?'_ Jiraiya faintly smiled, he knew her and her pride all too well. "Well then, good luck and come back in one piece. You better get ready soon," he folded the newspaper up and set it aside, finishing the rest of his coffee before getting up to get another cup.

"Oi, before I go, I want to ask you something," she stood up in search of breakfast, deciding to start by raiding the fridge while putting the juice carton back in its rightful place.

"What's that?" after he finished pouring the hot coffee, he reached his hand out. Naruto absentmindedly handed the creamer to him before headed over to the pantry, not wanting to bother with actually cooking something.

"That Sasuke kid, Sasuke Uchiha, he said something the other day that's been bugging me," she settled on cup ramen, taking one for Jiraiya as well, and picking up the electric kettle on her way back to the table.

"Uchiha?" he questioned, pouring some creamer into his coffee before putting it back into the fridge. He sat back down with his fresh cup, _'I don't like where this is going.'_

"Yeah. Taller boy, black hair styled like a duck's ass," she described him while setting the ramen down in front of her seat and taking the kettle to fill it up.

"Everyone's taller than you," he remarked, "but what about him?" his voice was cautious as he sipped his hot drink.

Naruto chose to ignore that first comment, not wanting to get sidetracked, although she usually jumped on the chance to defend her below-average height, "While we were introducing ourselves he said something about restoring his clan," she paused, turning the sink on and letting the container fill up. When it was full, she turned the faucet off and walked back. "Does that mean … his clan was destroyed somehow?" she continued, putting the plug of the kettle into the outlet, the actual device itself on the table, and flipping the switch on. While the liquid was starting to heat up, the young genin walked back to the pantry to grab two pairs of wooden chopsticks.

Jiraiya sighed, it wasn't something he was looking forward to answering, "Years back … I'd say you probably would've been about six years old, a bit after we left the village, the Uchiha clan was wiped out by a single person. That person was one of the clan members themselves, Itachi Uchiha. He's was labeled as an S-rank criminal and disappeared the night he slaughtered everyone except his little brother."

The chopsticks she had just found were dropped, her azure eyes showed the horror she was imagining as she was frozen in her tracks in the middle of the kitchen, "Wait," she mumbled, "If Sasuke is the only one alive, then…"

"That's right," his face was grim and emotionless. "Sasuke is Itachi's younger brother; the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan."

She couldn't even think of any words to say, so she slowly picked up the eating utensils and made her way over to the table. Setting them down next to their so called breakfast, the whistling steam from the kettle was the only noise until Jiraiya tried to break the silence, "In ways, he is similar to you. After the incident he was resented and-"

"Pervy Sage, please don't," she stalked back to her room, slamming the door as she went.

"I knew I shouldn't have told her," he sighed and scratched his scalp, knowing that Naruto was furious and upset for Sasuke. He shook his head and reached across the table to pour the boiling water into the two cups of instant noodles. With just a little water left in the pot, Jiraiya turned the switch off and the obnoxious screaming vapor died down until the only noise in the apartment was Naruto fumbling around in her room.

After waiting the necessary three minutes, he stretched to pick one cup ramen up along with a pair of wooden chopsticks. He peeled the rest of the lid off plastic cup and ate his first meal of the day. Naruto returned seven minutes later, clad in her signature orange jump suit and pigtails. Her headband was in one hand, she set it down on the table and picked up her breakfast while sliding into her seat.

"You know more than anyone about being treated differently because of something. Just keep that in mind," Jiraiya left with that, dropping the empty ramen container and chopsticks into the trash before heading off to his bedroom to get ready for the day.

"I know that, 'dattebayo," she broke the chopsticks apart before scarfing the noodles down in four bites or less. After tying the headband around her forehead, being respectful of the stray pieces of hair she had to avoid, she stood up and dumped her trash into the garbage. "I'm off!" Naruto called before walking out the door. With about thirty minutes before the mission, she decided work off some energy to help settle her uneasy thoughts. Most of which were about the Uchiha massacre.

* * *

Surprisingly, Kakashi was the one waiting for his three genin brats as he leaned against the Hokage building. He figured he should at least be on time for their first mission. With his nose in his inappropriate book, he heard two sets of footsteps approaching from in front of him.

"Sasuke-kun, what did you have for dinner last night?"

"Tomatoes."

"Just tomatoes?"

No response.

"You know – Oh, Kakashi-sensei! Good morning!"

"Morning," Kakashi put the novel away while he looked up to see the approaching duo. Sakura was waving and looked too close to Sasuke for his comfort. Something seemed similar to yesterday – "Where's Naruto?"

"I don't know, Sasuke-kun and I bumped into each other on the way here …" Sakura looked around, hoping to see the blonde approaching.

 _'That's odd, from Naruto's behavior yesterday I thought she would've shown up today,'_ he sighed. "Well, we're just going to wait until –"

"I'm here," she landed out of nowhere in front of the three, a bit out of breath and sweating slightly.

"Naruto?" Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," she nodded.

"What were you doing?" Sakura asked, cringing at the thought of showing up in front of Sasuke all sweaty like she just did.

"Training," it wasn't a lie, in her quest to calm her mind she possibly might've created a new clearing or two in a nearby forest.

Sasuke gained more interest at that moment, wondering exactly what kind of training the student of a Sannin goes though.

"Now that we're all here, I'll brief you on the mission I got us earlier," Kakashi got the attention of his team. "We're to capture a master of elusion, someone skilled in the art of escaping … Tora the cat!" he tried his best to make it seem exciting, but all three of them deadpanned when they heard the 'cat' part. "It's the mission we got, so hurry up!"

* * *

"What're your positions?" Kakashi's voice came through the earpiece of the communication device.

"Five meters from the target, ready to go at any time," Sasuke replied, peeking out from behind a tree.

"Seven meters, ready and waiting," Sakura added, she was doing the same a few trees away.

A moment of silence passed before, "Naruto, what about you?"

"Three," she was perched in a tree and sounded less than pleased.

"On my count, capture the target. One, two, three, go!" at his command, the three preteens sprang from their locations and jumped on a fuzzy brown cat. Naruto got her hands on the animal first, forcing Sakura and Sasuke just to look on at the wrestling match.

"Stay still!" she shouted at the cat, who was fighting with all her might. The feline landed a scratch that stretched down Naruto's right cheek. "Ok, that's it!" grabbing the cat by the scruff of the neck, she tossed it high into the air.

"Naruto?! What the hell?!" Sakura shouted in fear, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head as she scrambled to try and catch the cat that they were all hoping was Tora.

"Calm down," Naruto wiped the blood dripping from the scratch on her cheek onto her sleeve, stood up, and formed a snake hand seal. "Art of the Raging Lion's Mane!" she shouted, and her pigtails rapidly grew and raced towards the falling animal. They wrapped the presumed-Tora in hair, and then retracted until the cat was being held at a long arm's length away from her.

"Interesting jutsu," Kakashi appeared from the trees, walking over to them and petting the hissing animal on the head. "It's got the red bow on the right ear, target confirmed. Nice work Naruto, keep that up while we head back."

"Here, I'll wipe the blood off of your –" Sakura pulled a handkerchief from somewhere on her and walked towards Naruto, but she froze right before pressing the cloth against her cheek, "It's healed. I could've sworn Tora scratched you, but … there's no trace of anything," she continued to stare in disbelief. Sasuke walked closer to get a better look, as did Kakashi, both of them searching for any sign of an abrasion.

"Fast healer," Naruto bitterly explained, hoping they'd drop the subject. "Let's get going, I don't want to hold onto this thing any longer than necessary."

* * *

"Oh, my beloved Tora!" a heavy older woman cried when she saw Team 7 walk into the room.

Everyone there could've sworn they heard the cat gulp.

"My sweetheart, why did you run away again?" her makeup coated face and several pieces of jewelry hinted that she was either important, had lots of money, or both.

"Here," Naruto channeled more chakra into her hair, causing it to grow as she directed it towards the woman. The woman held her arms out expectantly, and the blonde hair quickly retreated while leaving the cat behind.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" she nearly suffocated Tora, whose eyes were bugging out beyond belief, and no one had any further questions as to why the cat had a history of running away. "Thank you!" the woman handed money to one of the many people at the long table and walked out.

"I sort of feel like we shouldn't have handed the poor cat over," Sakura whispered, and everyone silently agreed.

"Nonsense, you completed your first mission splendidly. Shijimi-sama was very pleased, Tora was returned, and that cat will go back to a life of luxury like we could never imagine," the Third Hokage spoke up. "Naruto, I see you've mastered that hair jutsu of Jiraiya's. Well done."

She shrugged, and her hair returned to it's original length.

"Now for your next assignment, let's see," Hiruzen flipped through the D-rank missions, "babysitting, field work…"

"Oi, if that's the shitty work you're going to assign us then I'm out," Naruto crossed her arms, staring stubbornly at the Hokage.

"Hey, don't speak with such disrespect –" Sakura tried to whisper, but was cut off.

"Naruto, I understand where you're coming from, but you have to get used to your new team placement before –"

"I've spent most of my live training, and you think I would take kindly to babysitting or pulling weeds for the elderly?!"

"Watch your tone with Hokage-sama!" Iruka, who happened to be sitting right next to Hiruzen, was getting more and more agitated with Naruto. Naruto glared back at him with a frightening iciness that make the chūnin involuntarily gulp.

"She's fine," Hiruzen held up his hand in front of Iruka to silence him. "Naruto, I understand that your ability level is much higher than your teammates, but you need to be patient and learn to cooperate with others. I know Jiraiya's taught you about teamwork, but experiencing it is different. Be patient, my dear," he smiled at her, and she huffed while turning her head away.

"If you three want to go on a higher rank, learn to get along better then," Kakashi glanced to each of them. "Hokage-sama, please assign us another D-rank for now. I'll keep working with them in the meantime."

"Very well," he nodded, and looked through the scroll of D-ranks. "I assign Team Kakashi to babysit my grandson, Konohamaru. Ebisu needs a break anyways, but the mission doesn't start until the day after tomorrow."

"You're kidding me," Naruto growled, not believing this was the ninja life that Jiraiya forced her into.

 _'Babysitting? Don't screw with me,'_ Sasuke's naturally-cold glare turned a few degrees colder, and Sakura let out a dissatisfied sigh.

"Now, now," Kakashi tried to cheer them up. "We'll spend these next two days training. Excuse us."

* * *

A short while later, the team of four arrived at their specific training area.

"Alright, I already have a bit of an idea about your abilities from the bell test," Kakashi addressed the three. "Sakura, you lack in physical strength and stamina. Sasuke, you're pretty well rounded, but I have a feeling your chakra control isn't up to par. Naruto," he looked her over while thinking, "considering you decided not to participate in the test, I'm not too sure what you can do. So, let's see …" he thought for a moment. "Sakura, you're going to run laps today. I want you run around the entire village until sundown," her eyes widened, "and you're going to wear these," he pulled leg and arm weights out of thin air.

"You're kidding me …" she looked terrified.

"You'll thank me later," he placed the weights in front of her, and she struggled to put them on. "I'll have my Shadow Clone run with you to keep you on pace," he formed a ram sign and another Kakashi appeared.

"Let's go, Sakura," Clone-Kakashi waited for her to finish putting the weights on.

"This is impossible," she whined, hoping Kakashi would have mercy on her.

"Don't complain," Sasuke was getting annoyed.

"Sasuke-kun," she looked to him and sighed. "I – I'll try my best!"

The Shadow Clone and Sakura started slowly jogging at first, and were soon out of sight.

"Sasuke, I have an idea for you, but Naruto …" he was stumped, looking at the blonde kunoichi who looked extremely unhappy to be there. "How about we –"

"I don't feel like it," she jumped towards the trees and disappeared.

"Normally I'd go after her, but that's not fair to you," he looked at Sasuke. "Let's get started, I'll talk to Jiraiya-sama about her later. Follow me, I'll explain what we're going to do."

 _'Is it from her trust issues that Jiraiya mentioned? Or, is it something else?'_ Kakashi couldn't help but wonder.

* * *

Out of sight from everyone, Naruto was sitting at the top of a very tall tree hugging her knees. Jiraiya appeared in front of her, and in one swift motion he kicked her off the branch. She reacted immediately and landed on a branch directly below the one she was on.

"The hell was that for?!" she blazed and glared up at him.

"I could ask you the same thing," he dropped down to her branch, "what're you doing over here when your teammates are training?"

"I don't want to be a ninja if I'm just going to be sent on errand missions. I don't want to train with other people either," she crossed her arms and purposely avoided his gaze.

The Sannin sighed, "I've know you your entire life, so I know the underlying message in those words," he gave a sympathetic smile and leaned down on his right knee, resting a hand on the top of her head to make her look at him. "They're not going to hurt you, I promise. It's not like that last time."

"But capturing lost pets, babysitting … yard work?! That's the reason I'm forced to deal with strangers?! It's not worth it!" her body was trembling, but no tears were falling.

"Guess what?"

She didn't respond.

"I had to complete over fifty D-ranks, those 'errand missions' as you call them, with two people who thought I was a giant idiot before I was consistently assigned to higher ranks."

"But you are a giant idiot …" she mumbled.

"Oi," he deadpanned. "I'm just going to forget that you ever said that. Naurto, I know you're not afraid of anything except this. Your fear of trusting, your fear of getting close to people again … I can't blame you. Just try, ok? Take little steps. I understand that you're incredibly strong for your age, but you can't go on missions that would endanger your teammates lives just because your skills exceed theirs."

"Still … yard work?"

"You have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Let's remember when I first started training you and you couldn't control your chakra properly so I made you –"

"I got it, I got it! Don't remind me!" she slapped her hands over his mouth, and he just laughed at her panicked expression.

He tried to speak, but it came out as muffled sounds.

"What?" she removed her hands and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Water Style, we're going to work on your Water Style techniques!" he shouted at her, and she almost fell off the branch from the force.

* * *

After a few rounds, Sasuke was frustrated to find out that this seemingly-simple exercise Kakashi wanted him to do wasn't so simple. The jōnin told his student to use his fireball jutsu, but to put the bare minimum amount of chakra into it. The purpose was to make a small flame, not a large one. Since the technique was meant to use a lot of chakra, it made it considerably difficult.

"Sasuke, don't get frustrated," Kakashi said after another failed attempt. "This jutsu is meant to use a lot of chakra, that's why it's challenging. If you can master this, then you'll have an easier time handling the chakra you put into jutsus. Let's take a short break. You won't have any skin left on your face if you keep this up."

The moment Sasuke turned to look around, a small orange toad in a navy vest appeared in a puff of smoke.

"I have a message for some Kakashi fellow," he announced.

"For me?" Kakashi squatted down to the amphibian's level.

"Let's see," the toad looked him over, "ridiculously spiky grey hair, mask, eye-patch made with headband … I guess you're him. Anyways, Jiraiya says that he's with Naruto and training, I quote, the hell out of her. He said to ask when you guys are finishing and they'll meet up with you later."

"Hm, I did send Sakura out until sundown. Just before sundown I guess," he nodded with his decision.

"Got it," the toad gave a thumbs up and disappeared.

Sasuke's thoughts drifted back his earlier ones of Naruto's training, specifically what it was like to study under a legendary ninja and her strength that everyone kept hinting was far beyond her age. His inferiority complex sparked, and he abruptly turned back towards the river, _'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu,'_ he tried to put less chakra into it than he had been to get a small flame, but only got a moderately large fire ball.

"No break then?" Kakashi ran a hand through his hair while standing up, continuing to watch him struggle with this training method.

* * *

The sun was starting to set when Sakura returned with Kakashi's Shadow Clone, she dropped to the ground in exhaustion.

"You did well," Clone-Kakashi praised.

 _'I'm dead. This is it. Forget about being Sasuke-kun's first kiss or ever dating him, I'm dying right here,'_ Sakura was drenched in sweat and was planning on making her grave right where she was laying.

Kakashi and Sasuke noticed that they got back and started walking towards them, the former created a ram sign to disperse his Shadow Clone.

"Hmm, looks like you did well," Kakashi responded once he read through the memories he received.

"More like dying," she was breathing heavily, but it started to regulate itself now. Painfully sitting up, Sakura started to take the arm and leg weights off. When she finished, she looked up to the two males that were looking down at her. "Sasuke-kun, you're covered in burns! Are you alright?!" forgetting about her current state, she scrambled to her feet and dashed forward to him. Pulling the same handkerchief out from earlier that day, she starting dabbing at the blistered oozing wounds around his lips.

The look of discomfort on his face was obvious, but Sakura was oblivious to it.

"It's fine," he started to pull away, but the pinkette gripped his forearm tightly to stop him.

"Sasuke-kun, just let me do this for you. Please," she kept at it, going from his face, to his hands, and his arms but a handkerchief wasn't enough to give him the proper medical attention. "If you come back to my house, I can treat you better. Let's go," she started pulling him in that direction, but froze when someone started clearing their throat behind them.

"Sakura, not so fast," Kakashi stopped her. "Jiraiya-sama is supposed to be coming back with Naruto soon. You three are a team, so wait for your other team member before running off to go play house."

"We weren't –" Sakura tried to protest, but she couldn't form the words as a scarlet blush took residence across her cheeks.

"Let go," Sasuke harshly jerked his limb away from her.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered, her words and expression showed her dejected spirit, but no one paid any mind. Clearing her throat, she tried again, "Where's Naruto anyways?"

"Hm?" Kakashi was reading his book, which at some point he had pulled out, and kept reading even while he answered. "She ran off earlier, but Jiraiya-sama found her I guess. Supposedly they spent the entire day training."

"Not supposedly, I trained the hell out of her," Jiraiya's voice called out. Him and Naruto jumped off one of the trees on the edge of the clearing and landed in front of the others.

"Oh, Naruto you look worse for wear," Kakashi observed. The jinchūriki was covered in large cuts, dirt, and was oddly soaking wet. She was holding her jacket, which was severely torn apart, in her left hand leaving her clad in a black tank top and pants that had acquired several new holes, rips, and tears. Her hair was free from the dual pigtails, but drenched nonetheless.

"From now on, I'll train with you guys. Sorry for my behavior earlier," her voice was strained, and Jiraiya slapped his hand onto her head to make her bow.

"You're forgiven," Kakashi snapped his reading material shut and put it away, it looked like he was smiling under the mask. "After all, I can't evaluate your skills and determine if you're fit to go on higher ranking missions if you run off like that."

Once Jiraiya released his hold on her, she stood straight up and gave an awkward cough while glancing away.

"Tomorrow we're going to work on team formations, and Naruto," Kakashi looked at her and she shifted her gaze from the trees to him, "I'm going to see your skillset this time. Maybe we'll do some mock fighting as well, ok?"

"Sure," she shifted her weight to one leg while her eyes found the grass very interesting.

"Sakura, Sasuke, got it?" their team leader asked.

"Yup," Sakura smiled at the thought of seeing Sasuke fight while the person of her obsession gave a silent nod.

"Naruto, on our way home let's stop at the bath house," Jiraiya looked hopeful. "You're beat up and soaking wet, so unless you take a warm bath you'll get sick –"

"When have you ever known me to get sick?" she gave him a nasty glare, but then it softened. "Since I'm going to be there though, it'll be fine. Why not?"

"Yes!" a pervy look was beginning to take over his face.

"There will be no funny business, you hear?" Naruto spoke in a tone that emitted an aura of violent death.

"Ok, ok," Jiraiya waved her off and started walking towards town while she sighed.

"He acts like a little kid sometimes," she watched him jollily stroll, then turned to the rest of her team and remembered what Jiraiya said about taking little steps. "Why don't you guys come along?" she spoke in an almost-hesitant voice.

"That sounds like fun!" Sakura jumped on the idea. _'Just imagine Sasuke-kun in the warm bath … Kya!'_ she internally squealed and looked at him expectantly.

"No thanks," he went to walk away, but Kakashi grabbed the back of his collar and forcefully pulled him backward.

"I think you meant, 'I'd love to'," the jōnin gave a delicate hint that he had to go with an underlying threating vibe.

Sasuke tsked in vexation, "Fine."

"I've got to follow Pervy Sage or else he'll get away, so just … um, you know … follow me if you're going to come," Naruto took off after her guardian at impressive speed, cursing under her breath as she went.

"You heard her," Kakashi starting walking, "let's go."

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke arrived with Kakashi walking behind them, mostly to make sure that Sasuke didn't take off.

"Wow, I've never been to a bath house before!" Sakura was obviously excited. "Come on, Sasuke-kun!"

He looked almost embarrassed to enter, but then Kakashi gently pushed him inside.

"Welcome!" an old lady at the front desk stood and bowed to them.

"Good evening," Sakura bowed to her, then took her shoes off and putting them in the locker to the right of them. Sasuke and Kakashi did the same before stepping onto the main floor.

"What a nice young lady. The women's baths are to the right, men's to the left. Please be aware that you need to pay before you bathe, and respect the rules. They're on the inside of each section," she was extremely polite, and after her small speech she sat back down.

"You two go ahead," the jōnin walked over to the front of the desk, "this is on me."

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura bowed again, then walked to the right.

"Sasuke, go," Kakashi ordered, and the brooding genin stalked to the left.

* * *

Sakura walked into the women's changing rooms, quickly read over the rules, and proceeded to strip down while storing everything in one of the baskets meant for personal belongings. She grabbed a fresh towel from a giant stack, wrapped it around herself, then grabbed a washcloth, and walked through the doors into the bathing area.

"Naruto!" she found her teammate sitting on one of the stools in front of a shower, the blonde was currently lathering her immense amount of hair.

"Sakura, you came," Naruto looked surprised at her arrival, and she nervously tried to cover her surprisingly developed chest with her arms and crossed her legs tightly.

"Don't be so shy, we're both girls," Sakura waved her hand at her, and Naruto slowly released her concealing position. "You invited us, so of course we came," she took off her towel and placed her towel on the specific rack, then sat down next to Naruto after rising the stool off. The two were able to talk freely since the rest of the bath was empty.

"We?" the jinchūriki started to rinse out her hair.

"Mhm," Sakura started to wet her hair and body. "Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun, they both came."

"I see," the corner of her lips turned up ever so slightly, then she started to put conditioner in her hair.

"You didn't think we would come?" the pinkette looked at her curiously while scrubbing her scalp and hair with shampoo. She noticed Naruto's injuries looked significantly better than before, like they were healing at an impossible rate, but she decided not to mention it.

"Uh, I don't know. I don't know you guys too well, so …" she trailed off while filling up a wooden bucket with water. Naruto squeezed some soap into the water, then dropped her towel in it. She quickly mixed it up to get the bubbles lathering, then began to wash her body with the soapy wash cloth.

"Then let's start getting to know each other," the pink kunoichi grinned at Naruto while finishing rinsing the shampoo out of her hair.

"But … how?" Naruto questioned, she looked utterly clueless and a bit worried. At the moment she was struggling to wash her back, and Sakura stood up and took the washcloth from her. "O-Oi," she tried to protest, but Sakura shushed her and began to scrub her back.

"Well, first, friends wash each other's backs," Sakura explained, "then you get to know each other just by talking and doing things together."

"How do you know?" she sounded unsure.

"Haven't you had friends before?" she set the washcloth back into the soapy tub, then took the detachable shower head off it's resting place and started to rinse the suds away.

"Uh … no, no I haven't," Naruto confessed and slumped her shoulders, almost as if to hide herself.

After making sure there was no trace of any soap, she put the shower head back and sat down on her seat. "Then consider me your first friend, ok?" Sakura faced her with an ear-splitting grin as she started to condition her own hair.

"Mph!" Naruto eagerly nodded, and for the first time Sakura thought she saw a sparkle in her eyes. "Here," Naruto stood up and mixed up a soapy bucket of water for her. "Can I see your –" she didn't even have to finish, Sakura understood what she was trying to do and handed her the washcloth. The blonde dunked the fabric into the sudsy water mixture before starting to wash the other kunoichi's back.

"Thank you," Sakura couldn't help but recognize Naruto's qualities in her younger self, before Ino came into her life. The fact that she was able to sort of connect to someone who seemed so closed off and sad made her smile uncontrollably.

* * *

Sasuke just finished reading the rules, taking his clothes off, and placing them into the provided basket. He grabbed a towel, wrapped it around himself, a washcloth, and walked into the bathing room. The only one there was Jiraiya, who was sitting on a stool and washing his absurdly long hair. He seemed to be sulking while muttering about how upset he was that there wasn't a separate unisex adult bathing room.

"Oh, Sasuke Uchiha right?" Jiraiya looked up from his mountain of shampoo at the young boy's arrival.

"Mhm," he nodded, finding this situation extremely awkward. "Jiraiya-sama, or Pervy Sage as Naruto calls you?"

"The first one will be fine, thanks," he mumbled, not wanting someone else calling him by that nickname.

Sasuke rinsed off the stool and sat three spaces away from him, for good measure, put his towel on the set holder, then started to bathe. It was painfully quiet between them until Kakashi walked in.

Instead of a greeting, he just dipped his head to Jiraiya. He had one washcloth wrapped around his face as a makeshift mask, and another in his hand. His left eye, which Sasuke's suspicions of it being destroyed were confirmed by the scar, was closed and a towel was secured around his hips until he took it off to place on the predetermined shelf. He rinsed the seat and sat down in between Sasuke and Jiraiya, but there was still one buffer space in between each of them.

It was painfully awkward throughout their showering and bath. No one had anything to say to each other, the only noise they could hear was the occasional laugh from the girl's side. The first time it trickled through to the men's side, all three shinobi were in the bath, and Jiraiya's head jerked up from it's resting place against the wall and his eyes widened.

"Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi sat up and looked confused at his sudden behavior. Sasuke glanced over as well, he seemed annoyed by the bath water splashing around.

"Ah, sorry. It's nothing," he leaned back with a slight smile on his lips. "Nothing at all."

* * *

 **So, personally, I have never been to a Japanese bathhouse. Or to Japan. Or any bathhouse. I did a lot of research about the rules and what you do, so I hope that came across alright.**

 **Please leave a review, those really make my day and encourage me! I love to hear your opinions :D**

 **For those of you who reviewed on the A/N that I've deleted, please leave a review in one of the previous chapters, leave a guest review, or PM me. It means a lot!**

 **I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP, but I'm super busy with school and such.**

 **Hope you're all doing well!**


	4. Chapter 4 - Preview

This is where a chapter-preview once lived, but is no longer needed, so **BOOM SHACK-A-LACK-A-LACK-A ~(*.*)~ ONTO THE OFFICIAL CHAPTER~!**


	5. Chapter 4 - Complete

**Sorry this update is so late! A lot has been going on in my personal life, so it's been extremely hard to write.** **Please excuse any spelling/grammar errors. I think I read over this chapter five million times, so hopefully none of them escaped my editing attack!**

 **This chapter is also unbetaed, but I did the best I could without her ... *in the distance: Where are you Itooshii Koneko, wahhhhh***

 **I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Team formations can be the difference between life and death," Kakashi explained to his three genin students. They were standing in the middle of their usual training ground, all three preteens were listening with various degrees of interest. "They're made depending on the skills of that specific team. Since we've only known each other for a few days, I basically know nothing about you three other than the skills you've used to get through the bell test. What I observe from you three today will determine what primary formations we will make."

Naruto blew some stray bangs out of her face and her point of focus kept shifting around. Sasuke's stare was unmoving from an anthill, and Sakura's eyes wouldn't leave the Uchiha's profile.

Kakashi sighed and pulled four small pieces of paper out of his pocket. He waved them in front of Naruto's face to get her attention, then motioned for her to take one. The same happened for Sasuke and Sakura, until all three of them were holding the small sheet and Kakashi was holding the last one.

"This is chakra paper. If you channel your chakra into it, it will tell you what type of chakra nature you naturally posses. Wind will make the paper will tear, lightning will make the paper crinkle up, water will make it wet, fire will make it burn, and earth will make it crumble. Mine," he held his paper up between two fingers, and the paper suddenly shriveled up, "is lightning. This means I'll have an easier time mastering lightning techniques among other things. Give it a go."

Sakura held hers up and focused her chakra into it, the paper turned to dirt and fell apart. "Earth," she quietly announced.

Sasuke went next, the paper shriveled up like Kakashi's did, "Lightning."

Naruto just stared at hers, the paper showed no signs of change.

"Naruto?" Kakashi looked at her expectantly.

"Wind," she met his gaze, the paper in her hands undisturbed. All of the sudden it sliced in half, but the blonde looked unimpressed. "I've known it since I was about six years old, Pervy Sage did the same thing."

"I see. Interesting mix though, I didn't think any of you would have a wind affinity. That makes you the second person in the Leaf village."

"I know Pervy Sage said it was rare, but to that extent?" her features held a skeptical look.

"A natural wind affinity is extremely rare; it also has the greatest destruction power out of all of the natures. If you're wondering, Asuma Sarutobi is the other wielder. If you have any questions about it, you could ask him," he crossed his arms casually and looked to the only male genin. "Sasuke, you already have at least one fire technique mastered. Considering the Uchiha take pride in the Fire Style, I assume that you only have tried Fire Releases?"

He nodded, not wanting to say that no one has been around to teach him since the massacre.

"I'll work with you on trying to get a few Lightning Styles under your belt. It's impressive that you managed to master those Fire Techniques even though your natural chakra affinity is different."

"Leave it to Sasuke-kun," Sakura smiled and silently fangirled, while Sasuke himself shrugged.

"Sakura, I take it that you've never done any elemental jutsus before?" Kakashi interrupted her Sasuke-praising.

"Oh, um …" her focus went from Sasuke to Kakashi, and in a shy voice she responded, "that's right."

"It's nothing to be ashamed about, that's why we're training," he gave her a masked one-eyed smile, then looked to the last member of their group. "Naruto?"

She shifted uncomfortably before answering, "Pervy Sage has been training me forever, so I know a lot actually. I'm adept in Wind Style, Earth Style, and Water Style. He's talking about trying to get me to learn Fire Style next…"

"Three styles? Jiraiya-sama doesn't waste anytime, does he?" Kakashi wasn't all that surprised, he figured that the Sannin's student was skilled far beyond others her age.

There was an awkward silence while Naruto fiddled with her fingers nervously. She could feel everyone's stares on her, Sakura's shocked stare, Kakashi's aloof stare, and Sasuke's icy glare.

"Well, Naruto's versatility will make for some interesting combinations. Usually beginning genin formations are usually based off of taijutsu and weapons, but…" he trailed off while looking over each of his students, "since two of you can use high level jutsus, or at least Naruto I'm assuming yours are high level, we're going to do something different. In order to get the best combinations, I need to evaluate you further. We'll do that by mock fighting, alright?"

Surprisingly, Sasuke spoke up, "I," he paused for a moment, taking that time to face the jinchūriki with an agitated expression, "want to fight Naruto."

Naruto analyzed his expression, her eyebrows crinkling in dismay while thoughts about the boy's behavior circled through her brain, _'A brother who killed everyone he held dear …'_ she added an edge to her features to counter his, and her eyes showed a sense of realization while their stare down continued. _'That must be the man he said he has to kill … It's the only thing that makes sense after all, your sibling killing off every single member of your family except for you … Hell, if I could I would…'_ she didn't let herself finish that thought, _'Hating his brother is all he knows, he's … lost.'_

"Sasuke, I was going to have you three individually fight my Shadow Clones so I can get a proper assessment of-" Kakashi's calm explanation was cut off by the short tempered Uchiha.

"I need to measure my strength, let me fight Naruto," he went to step forward, but Kakashi extended his arm to make him stop. The jōnin went to say something, but Naruto spoke up first.

"I won't fight you when you're directing rage at me that's meant for someone else. I get that you want to get stronger to meet your goals, but you're going about it the wrong way. Don't come picking a fight with me when all you can think about is killing your older brother, I guarantee you that you'll lose," Naruto spoke with a sad understanding.

' _She just had to mention Itachi, huh?'_ Kakashi sighed, knowing that there was no possible way that Sasuke would just let that go.

' _Older brother? What does Naruto know that I don't?'_ Sakura looked back and forth between the two. Naruto's glare was almost captivating as her eyes were contradictorily sympathetic, while Sasuke looked like he was about to explode.

He did.

Sasuke lunged for Naruto, catching Kakashi off guard and said jōnin couldn't get in between them fast enough. Sasuke threw an anger-filled uncoordinated punch that Naruto only had to step to the side to dodge. He sneered, then swung his leg with the intention of knocking her teeth out with his foot.

"You're using your anger to run away from dealing with the truth," she caught his high-kick with a single hand, a little too effortlessly for Sasuke's liking. "Calm down," her grip tightened around his ankle, and he ground his teeth in agitation. He went to break free of her hold by jumping up with the other leg and kicking her with it, but Kakashi appeared between the two and sent them both flying in opposite directions.

"Sasuke, regardless of how angry you are, you should never, _ever_ , attack a team member. Naruto, try adopting a little sense of consideration," he chided while both genins spun themselves around so they could land on their feet. Naruto's eyes iced over to their normal state, almost as if she was drawing the little emotion she revealed back inside of herself. Sasuke's automatic response was to glare, his long-since adopted tactic of keeping people away. The degree of pure hatred in his eyes was more than enough to make Sakura involuntary gulp, and he wasn't even looking at her.

With a sigh, and a single hand seal, Kakashi created two shadow clones of himself. One walked over to Naruto, grabbed her by the ear, and walked off to a separate corner of the training grounds. The other did the same with Sasuke.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura tilted her head at him in confusion.

"Consider it an honor Sakura, you get to train with the real me," he smiled through his mask, but the deadly, yet sad, aura Sakura felt him emit made her shiver slightly. "Your chakra nature is earth, so by the end of the day you should be able to do some earth releases," he started to slowly form hand signs, and Sakura got the hint and started to follow along smoothly.

"The end of the day?" she asked skeptically, feeling more comfortable as his evil aura dissipated.

"It's only mid-morning, and don't doubt yourself so much. What we're going to try is extremely simple, it's called Earth Style: Barrier Jutsu," he ended his seals on a snake sign. "Do you have all the signs memorized?"

"I think so."

"Watch, this is what it's supposed to look like. Earth Style: Barrier Jutsu," he turned to the side and slammed his hands on the ground, the response was a thin sheet of rock that shot up from the earth.

Sakura observed the jutsu, repeated the hand signs, and tried it herself, "Earth Style: Barrier Jutsu," she slammed her hands down, and a wall similar to Kakashi's appeared. It didn't reach the height that the jōnin's did, but it was impressive for a first attempt. Her eyes lit up in delight from the success.

"Again," Kakashi politely ordered.

* * *

"Why must you aggravate him like that?" Kakashi's shadow clone released Naruto's ear in a motion that threw her into the dirt. "You've known him for less than a week and somehow you have managed to learn the dark truth of his past, _and_ use it against him."

"I didn't provoke him, I was just reacting," she shrugged, standing up while rubbing her ear.

"Reacting by bringing it up as if you were rubbing salt into an open wound?" he raised his one exposed, although barely visible, eyebrow at her.

"I was simply stating the truth. If he can't handle that, then he shouldn't be a shinobi at all," she stated bluntly.

"Still, you can't just-" Kakashi stopped himself and gave a frustrated sigh, realizing that talking to the girl who spent all twelve years of her life burying her emotions about said emotions wouldn't get him anywhere. "You almost looked like you were trying to reach out to him, except in the _worst possible way,_ " he couldn't stress his words enough. "You two are shinobi with an extraordinary set of circumstances, just – just try to get along," Kakashi was pinching the bridge of his nose, being the team leader of an angry self-proclaimed avenger, a girl who is madly in love with said avenger, and a sadly wise yet mysterious jinchūriki wasn't what he signed up for. "You looked like you were starting to get along better with them yesterday, just don't back peddle. You don't need to hide in that tough shell that you created for yourself all the time."

"It's easier that way."

"Why?" he challenged.

"Just because."

"That's not an answer Naruto, as your team leader I order you to tell me," normally he wouldn't push someone to talk about something personal, but with her contradicting attitudes the past few days he needed to get to the bottom of it if he ever wanted some form of stability from her. Which he really, really, wanted.

"What if I don't want to tell you?!" she became oddly frazzled with that exclamation.

"Then be a hypocrite. Should we reference back to your first real conversation with Sasuke and Sakura? What were you saying to Sasuke about letting his demons prevent him from moving forward?" he used his own words against her, and judging by her reaction it might've just worked.

I…" she cast her eyes down and took a struggled breath, "I hate interacting with strangers," she spoke the words so quietly, almost like she was ashamed.

"Unfortunately, it's apart of life to meet new people, you just have to –"

"You're wrong," her voice rose a bit, and she shakily rose her gaze to meet Kakashi's. Her eyes reflected more emotions than he could recognize. "It's not the people themselves that terrify me. I'm scared that I'm going to terrify them," she was whispering and hesitant, "If I act indifferent and stand off to the side, then it's fine. People leave me alone, and I leave them alone. But now …" she took a deep breath, "I don't want to get close to them only for them to come to hate me. If they started looking at me like that, like they were _scared_ …" she clenched her hands tightly, "I can't afford to have a weakness," her features hardened again, mentally kicking herself for letting her guard drop so easily. "I don't have that luxury."

' _She's terrified. It's not just trust issues, she's truly scared,'_ he looked at her differently with the realization, and she was trembling slightly and staring at the ground. _'It explains the inconsistency with her behavior. Friends, not friends. Opening up, then cold as ice… Oh, Naruto,'_ not knowing what think, let alone say, he walked forward to pat the top of her head, and she froze at the motion. Kakashi slowly ruffled the blonde locks, and he sighed, for the umpteenth time that day, at just how traumatized two of his genin were. He withdrew his hand, and knelt down slightly to look her in the eyes. "They're not going to hate you, or be scared of you. I promise."

"You don't know that! They already gave me weird looks because I can use three elemental style jutsus, what about when they find out that there's a –"

"Naruto," Kakashi gently cut her off. "That's not going to happen. That won't become known to them unless you want it to."

"It's happened before," she murmured, and Kakashi didn't need to guess as to what she was referring to.

"It's different this time, I promise. You made quite a first impression on them, I might admit, but you have two options. You can keep pushing people or way, or, as uncomfortable as it may be, you can start accepting them. You've already connected a bit with Sakura, and Sasuke, like you, is going to take some time to come around. You're a twelve-year-old brat, you should be worrying about boys instead of this…" he trailed off, figuring she probably didn't need a reminder about how her life wasn't fair and all the details that came with the explanation, but he hoped his point got across. "Ok?"

She could only blink and stare at him for a few moments, but then slowly nodded with a broken smile. Kakashi sighed in relief, and stood back up to his full height. "Thank you, for telling me."

As if she had only just realized what had happened, Naruto blushed violently out of painfully raw embarrassment. She stammered over several words, and was anxiously tugging on the ends of her hair while trying to form a sentence.

"It'll stay between us, I promise," Kakashi spoke over her floundering, and the expression on her face could only be described as relief. "Now, try to send me back to my original body," he shifted into a fighting stance. "That is, if you think you can," he taunted her. A slim smile graced her lips as she formed a seal with her hands, her attitude making a complete one-eighty.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

* * *

"Sasuke," Kakashi's Shadow Clone tossed him to the ground, "we do _not_ go around attacking our team mates."

"I need to measure my strength," he sounded like a broken-record, and was obviously avoiding the fact that Naruto knew so much about him.

"You can measure your strength against me then," the jōnin offered.

"You're a former ANBU captain, a jōnin who fought in the Third Shinobi War, and not to mention a Hatake. You're over a decade older than me, I'm not so naïve that I think I can defeat you. At least not in my current state," he angrily mumbled the last part.

"I'm a better goal to beat than Naruto though. Your older brother was a former ANBU captain, a jōnin who fought in the Third Shinobi World War, an Uchiha with a fully mastered sharingan, and now an S-ranked criminal. Naruto's strength doesn't match his as closely as mine does," Kakashi pointed out.

"She's trained with a Sannin since she was born, and has been traveling her whole life training. You even said she could probably defeat you, so if I can't defeat her then how could I ever kill that man?!" he nearly shouted.

"I never said Naruto could defeat me, I said she had the best chance out of all three of you," he used his hand to gesture to where Sakura was, Naruto was, and then finally to Sasuke. "Do you honestly think that being able to defeat her will bring you closer to your goal?"

"What else will?" he glared.

"The only thing you'll accomplish is that you'll lose a friend."

"I don't need friends, and I won't lose anything. She's not my friend, neither one of them are," he angrily spat.

"Don't be so quick to write off someone who's more than happy to put up with you, trust me when I say that's it's not an appealing job," he was referencing to Sakura as the volume of his voice rapidly decreased during the last handful of words. He took a deep breath, then started again, "Everyone needs someone, Sasuke. It's so, so sad to be alone and you've been alone for so long. Naruto's not that different than you, trust me when I say her past is just as harsh as yours. If anyone could understand you, it's her."

"I don't need to make ties; I don't need anything except to kill that man!"

"That's nice and all Sasuke, but you're a twelve-year-old who's barely a boy, let alone a shinobi. You've never been out of the village on a mission, and the highlight of your week will be babysitting the Hokage's grandson tomorrow. If you plan on babysitting Itachi, then you might as well leave the village right now to look for him. If you have other plans for him, then I suggest honing your skills to be able to complete this quest of yours successfully. Stop pushing others away when they can be of great help to you."

"I said that I don't need –"

"Sasuke!" Kakashi harshly cut him off. "You can have friends and fulfill your goal. I don't care what you do regarding Itachi, but I do care about how you're treating your teammates and how it will affect your future. I can send you back to the academy right now and you can spend another year among kids who can't throw a shuriken straight, or you can let go of your childish behavior and start being a part of this team."

"I –"

"I'm not saying make friends overnight, I'm not saying to go on a date tomorrow, but I am saying to stop being such a prick that you can't even have a conversation without it ending in a fight. You learn surprising things from different people, so stop trying to be this badass avenger that you've made up in your head, and start being the twelve-year-old brat you are. You can be an avenger when you're ready to, but for now I recommend letting the people who want to help you in. You've got a more than willing one over there," he nodded towards Sakura's direction, "and I promise, if you give Naruto a chance, you two could become much better friends than you think."

"Are you telling me to give up the entire reason I'm alive? That man killed all of my family, and he spared me! Me! Why me only me?!" he screamed, tears threatening to build up in his eyes.

"Did you not just hear what I said? I said that I don't care what you do regarding Itachi, but I do care about the present. I don't know why he only spared you Sasuke, I'm sorry, but you need to start moving on. Your sorry excuse of a shinobi twelve-year-old self cannot take him on now, but I can train you to the best of my ability. You can seek out other masters as well. So until your sharingan is mastered, until your fireball jutsu can destroy an entire forest instead of just a sapling, give up on trying to kill Itachi tomorrow. Don't let him take away your life, you're letting him consume you! What did Naruto say to you during the genin test? I've seen it too Sasuke, and you're starting to become it. It's almost like your older brother killed you and your corpse is still walking. Have a little more pride for your clan, have a little more pride for yourself."

The Uchiha couldn't even begin to comprehend Kakashi's words, or more accurately he didn't _want_ to comprehend them. He didn't want to consider the possibility of a life other than getting revenge, it would only serve as a distraction to him. He had been alone for so long … why was it now that people were concerned for him? He had become comfortable with closing himself off to people, and it was easy considering no one even wanted him alive after what Itachi had done.

"Don't let him win, Sasuke," Kakashi followed up with his lecture.

Sasuke couldn't physically, or mentally, form any words. He was trembling slightly, panting a touch from the pure anger in his veins. His face was hidden by his bangs but it was obvious he was looking at the ground, and if enough attention was paid, a few tears could be seen falling.

The jōnin gave him time to process through his thoughts, and he patiently observed his body language. The student said nothing, but after a very pregnant pause he finally looked up at Kakashi. The tears were gone, only the paths they left on his cheeks remained, and the look in his eyes was enough to tell Kakashi that some part of what he said broke through to him.

"Well done," he nodded, praising the boy for overcoming his fears; even if it was in the slightest manner. "Let's spar, Sasuke. Show me what _you,"_ he placed great emphasis on the word, "can do."

Dare Kakashi say he saw the corner of the boy's mouth turn up slightly before the genin began to charge.

* * *

A few hours later, the team regrouped. Each genin was out of breath from their own respective training, the two shadow clone's of Kakashi's dispersed at the original's command. His eye closed for a moment, most likely a sign that he was processing through the memories that he had received.

"Oh," he opened his eye, and looked right to Naruto. "How interesting."

The other two genin turned their attention to her in curiosity, but Kakashi spoke up before anyone could get a word out.

"Sasuke," his focus shifted to the black-haired one. "Not bad," as the words left this mouth, he redirected his gaze to all three. "You brats aren't bad considering that you're fresh meat from the academy, or from other places in one of your cases. Let's go over some formations I've come up with," he sat down, and the others did the same.

"The three of you are very well rounded, but we'll have to assign roles in order to be an affective team. Naruto will act as the primary assailant for the most part, Sasuke will be in charge of distraction and clearing a path for Naruto, and Sakura will be in charge of the distraction and clearing a path for Sasuke. Needless to say, all three of you will still be responsible for support outside of your main role," Kakashi was using a stick to draw figures into the dirt, and surprisingly all three genins were listening patiently. "Now, these aren't things that are set it stone, but it's important to recognize the strengths of everyone so that there is a plan when a plan is needed. Make sense?"

They all gave some form of acknowledgement, from a grumble under the breath, to a nod, to a blink.

"We'll make five primary formations with those rules, and another five that switch the roles around. So listen up, and then we're going to start practicing. Got it?"

"Mhm!"

"I guess…"

"… Sure."

* * *

After drilling a total of ten formations into their brains, the genins of Team 7 respectively went their own ways. Two of them went through an unexpected emotional wringer, and the other was so tired so couldn't even think about Sasuke straight.

* * *

Naruto sloppily flopped through the door to her and Jiraiya's apartment, mumbled that she was home, and immediately went to her room to take a long, long, bath and think.

"She's speechless …" Jiraiya stared in awe from his spot at the kitchen table, pieces of a new novel he was working on was scattered everywhere. He slowly took off his glasses, blinked, and mumbled, "That's new."

* * *

Sakura was half-dead by the time she got home, and almost fell asleep while taking her shoes off at the door.

"I'm home," she called out, and he parents were quick to notice her roughed-up state.

"Everything ok, dear?" was asked at the same time as, "How was training, honey?"

"I'm fine, it was good. I'm just tired," she yawned as she trudged to her room without another word. Her parents exchanged a glance, shrugged, and went back to their previous activities.

* * *

Sasuke didn't immediately head back to his apartment, instead he walked towards the Uchiha compound. It remained untouched to this day, with caution tape and warning signs everywhere to stay out. He ignored it all and entered. He was quick to walk to his old house, and once inside he went to his parents' bedroom.

The bloodstain that marked their death was still as bright as the day Sasuke walked in on Itachi slaughtering them, but this time he wasn't running away. He stalked over to the sickeningly large spot, and kneeled down next to it. Tentatively, he reached a hand out towards it and rested his fingers on the cold wood.

"Otou-san, Okaa-san," he whispered, and tears started to drip down his face. For lack of words he couldn't bring himself to say, the only thing he could strangle out of his own throat was a broken, "I'm sorry."

He wasn't sure how long he stayed there, but the time passed quickly as he became immersed in his own thoughts regarding everything that's happened – particularly what happened just a while earlier.

* * *

Team 7 reported to the outside of the Hokage's tower at eight in the morning to begin their all-mighty mission of babysitting the Hokage's grandson. Two out of three of the genin looked sleep-deprived, the third was moving slowly, as if she were extremely sore, and the jōnin-sensei was oddly happy-go-lucky as he read his little porn book - almost like he solved all of life's problems.

"I'm Konohamaru, kore!" a voice yelled out of nowhere, and everyone looked over to see a small boy wearing a helmet running away from an obviously frazzled ninja.

"Omago-sama, please wait!" the ninja yelled.

"Konohamaru, not Omago-sama, kore!" he yelled behind him and stuck his tongue out. Due to the fact that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he was knocked onto his butt by running into something. That something was Naruto's hand, as she reached out to stop him instead of just letting him run into her.

"Who dared to do that, kore?!" Konohamaru yelled out, and upon meeting Naruto's gaze she, very angrily, raised an eyebrow at him. The simple action was enough to make him want to run away, but being the man he was he settled on gulping slightly.

"Omago-sama, are you alright?! How dare these ruthless genins cause you harm!" the ninja that was chasing him ran over and swiftly kneeled down to small child's side. "I will tell the Hokage about this!" he looked to Kakashi accusingly.

"Ebisu, eccentric as ever I see," Kakashi immediately went back to his book after his quick greeting, paying no ounce of concern.

"I'm fine, kore," Konohamaru pushed himself up and away from Ebisu, and then began to glare at Naruto.

"We've got him from here Ebisu, go take a breather," Kakashi waved him away. "Meet us back here at six."

"A – Alright," he nodded, "Omago-sama, don't let them trample all over you. Remember your training!" and then he briskly walked away.

"Fight me, kore!" Konohamaru barked at Naruto, and all three genins had the same, ironic, thought.

' _Great.'_

* * *

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